Machine Learning Helps Plasma Physics Researchers Understand Turbulence Transport - Stories Display Page - XSEDE

For more than four decades, University of California, San Diego, Professor of Physics Patrick H. Diamond and his research group have been advancing our understanding of fundamental concepts in plasma physics. Most recently, Diamond worked with graduate student Robin Heinonen on a model reduction study that used the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE)-allocated Comet supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego to showcase how machine learning produced a new model for plasma turbulence. Plasmas have many applications, including fusion energy. When light nuclei fuse together, the mass of the products is less than that of the reactants, and the missing mass becomes energy – hence Albert Einstein's famous E mc2 equation. In order for this to occur, temperatures must literally reach astronomical levels, such as those found in the Sun's core.