Exploring New Regions of Space: Fundamentals and Impacts of Astrophysical Plasma Turbulence

How do stars like the Sun drive fast supersonic winds into their local environments? Why is the solar atmosphere hundreds of times hotter than the Sun itself? Can the damaging effects of space weather be reliably predicted? What might we discover in parts of space we have yet to explore? The coming decade presents an unprecedented opportunity answer these, and other, major outstanding questions in plasma astrophysics. NASA's Parker Solar Probe (PSP) will soon become the first spacecraft to fly through the solar corona, while the Voyager spacecraft are now beginning to explore the local interstellar medium (LISM) beyond the heliosphere for the first time. There are many mysteries to be investigated in these regions of space, but they also hold the key to understanding the universal physical processes at the heart of the above unanswered questions. In addition, space weather - the changing plasma conditions in the near-Earth space - is being realised as increasingly urgent to understand and predict due to its potentially severe consequences for us on Earth. Space weather is high on the UK's National Risk Register, alongside infectious diseases, with the potential for substantial harm to the economy and public health, putting lives at risk, due to the vulnerabilities of our modern society's increasing reliance on its technological infrastructure.

I consider the essential key to answering these questions and challenges to be the importance of plasma turbulence - the fundamental complex chaotic behaviour of the ionised gasses that make up most of the known matter in the universe. Plasma turbulence is ubiquitous in nature, governing the flow of energy and dynamics of these environments, but basic questions remain about how it works, to what degree it is universal, and how it impacts the astrophysical systems that it pervades. Until recently, the effect of turbulence in astrophysics had been under-appreciated, but with recent progress in understanding it is now seen to play a key role in many important scenarios, e.g., solar and stellar wind generation, heating of the solar corona, accretion disk transport, galaxy cluster heating, magnetic field generation, and space weather impacts.

My research vision is to connect these related themes in a new and unique interdisciplinary project on the fundamentals and impacts of plasma turbulence, which will answer these important and timely questions. The proposed research, which builds on my proven expertise in space plasma turbulence, involves using PSP to make the first measurements in the solar corona to determine how turbulence generates the solar wind and heats the corona, using Voyager to understand interstellar turbulence and its effect on the global heliosphere, novel lab experiments on the Large Plasma Device to probe the fundamental interactions at the heart of plasma turbulence, and new techniques to understand the effect of turbulence on space weather and make urgent improvements to forecast accuracy.

An interdisciplinary approach will be taken to this ambitious and unique project to achieve maximum impact, allowing me to establish myself as a new leader in the field. Academic impact will be achieved by answering important long-standing questions of fundamental plasma physics and space plasma physics. Socioeconomic impact will be achieved from improved space weather predictions to help protect us from its damaging effects and preventing billions of pounds worth of damage to the economy.

In summary, this proposal describes a highly timely programme of interdisciplinary research that covers important fundamental topics in plasma physics, long-standing open questions in astrophysics, space exploration with the potential for significant discoveries, and direct application to space weather forecasting with a clear path to major societal impact.