The CHIMERAS project: Design framework for the Collisionless HIgh-beta Magnetized Experiment Researching Astrophysical Systems

Energy and momentum transport from large-scale fields and flows to small-scale motions of plasma particles is ubiquitous in these systems, but a full picture of the underlying physical mechanisms remains elusive. The transfer is often mediated by a turbulent cascade of Alfvénic fluctuations as well as a variety of kinetic instabilities; these processes tend to be multi-scale and/or multi-dimensional, which makes them difficult to study using spacecraft missions and numerical simulations alone.

Meanwhile, existing laboratory devices struggle to produce the collisionless, high ion beta ( $\beta _i \gtrsim 1$ ), magnetized plasmas across the range of scales necessary to address these problems. As envisioned in recent community planning documents, it is therefore important to build a next generation laboratory facility to create a $\beta _i \gtrsim 1$ , collisionless, magnetized plasma in the laboratory for the first time.