Plasma physics at UC Irvine is an important focus of the Physics and Astronomy Department in the training of students and in the creation of new physics knowledge. The plasma physics lab is a pretty exciting place to be. Ionized matter gives us the plasma state. Undergraduates, graduate students, research physicists, and faculty work in the plasma labs with the common goal of discovering and understanding new knowledge, part of the heart of the physics research university environment. Just as turbulence is an issue of interest in the present social structure of the world, so too is turbulence riveting for plasma physicists.
Turbulent plasmas are the norm, yet to diagnose turbulence has proved difficult.
In the last few years electronics advances have made data acquisition and processing possible on scales not previously achievable. Experimentalists now can study plasmas in the usually found turbulent forms. Turbulence in plasmas encompasses ions, electrons, and electromagnetic waves. We study all three areas since they are inextricably linked. Ion and electron motion in plasmas creates turbulent waves.