The video of the CMFX group posted on the APS TV Youtube channel featured at the 2024 APS March meeting.

This research effort is a collaboration between the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

Team Members

Lead Principal Investigator - Carlos  A. Romero-Talamás (UMBC)
UMD Subaward Principal Investigator - Brian Beaudoin (UMD)
Assistant Research Professor  - Artur Perevalov (UMBC)
Graduate Students:  Zachary Short, Willow Morrissey (UMBC)

Students from UMBC, affiliated with the CMFX project (but hired through separate projects at UMBC)
Ethan Bowers (Graduate Student: Bitter electromagnet development, dusty plasmas, centrifugal plasmas for materials testing)
Natalija Marin (Graduate Student: Fusion propulsion nozzle development, helicity space magnetic compressor, plasma diagnostics)

Pascal Conroy, Undergraduate Student, UMD, bolometry
Justin James, Undergraduate Student, UMD, power circuit simulations

Previous Members

Faculty: Adil B. Hassam, Timothy Koeth
Graduate Students: Nathan Eschbach (Ph.D. 2024), Nick Schwartz (Ph.D. 2024)
Undergraduate Students:  Ismail Aadan (Summer 2024) insulator design; Mohamed Nasser (Summer 2022) gas mixing system; A. Bartolomeu (Summer 2022) analog to digital recording; Alex Zarta (Fall 2022) vacuum system assembly, Leah Dorsey (Summer 2021) capacitor rack, John Ball (2020 to Spring 2021)  neutron detector, Justyn Bunkley (Spring 2021) center conductor, Justin Drummond (Summer 2020) chamber supports, Keith Gorschbroth (Summer 2020) HV circuit design
CAPSTONE Undergraduates, Spring 2021: Kyle Lowery, Justin Swartzendruber, Brett Deloach, Timothy Packard
CAPSTONE Undergraduates, Spring 2025: Lexie Bultman, Cassandra Paris, Nirman Patel, Alex Griffionen
MIT Collaboration,2024-2025: John Ball, Shon Mackie, Jacob van de Lindt, R. Alex Tinguely

Research Focus

The Centrifugal Mirror is a magnetized plasma in mirror configuration that is put into azimuthal rotation by imposition of a radial electric field that sets up an ExB flow. The plasma feels a radially outward centrifugal force, which has a component parallel to the B field that confines the plasma to the midplane. The associated velocity shear stabilizes large and small scale instability. The configuration can in principle confine high temperature plasma at fusion conditions to allow net energy gain from fusion products. The CMFX (Centrifugal Mirror Fusion Experiment) will test this concept by running experiments operating at intermediate fusion conditions, as proof of principle.

Support

Funded by the ARPA-E-BETHE programme (https://arpa-e.energy.gov/technologies/programs/bethe).

Principal Investigator

Carlos Romero-Talamas Visiting Associate Professor 410-455-8049 | romero@umd.edu, romero@umbc.edu Profile