Psaap IV - high order plasma turbulence modeling for Z-pinch - focused investigatory center develop high-order numerical methods and scientific machine learning techniques that will be applied to…

The Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration awarded a $1.817 million Cooperative Agreement (DENA0004265) to Michigan State University on September 22, 2025, under the Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program (CFDA 81.124) to develop high-order numerical methods and scientific machine learning techniques for modeling and interpreting plasmas in fluid and fluid-adjacent regimes, with emphasis on turbulence in magnetized plasmas and radiative magnetic reconnection relevant to high-energy-density physics experiments and fusion energy applications including Z-pinches.

The period of performance runs through September 21, 2030, with work performed in East Lansing, Michigan. The award supports fundamental research in predictive science through verification, validation, and uncertainty quantification methodologies applied to large-scale simulations of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) systems with radiative cooling.

Michigan State University leads the Focused Investigatory Center with sub-recipients Georgia Tech Research Corporation and Brown University. Georgia Tech's team, led by Prof. Qi Tang and two PhD students, develops scalable MFEM-based MHD code incorporating structure-preserving discretization techniques, reduces-order modeling in the libROM package, and structure-preserving neural ODE approaches. Near-term milestones include developing discontinuous Galerkin-based extended MHD code, porting MFEM-based MHD code to GPUs, and building initial reduced-order models using existing magnetic reconnection data. Brown University develops high-order numerical methods with positivity-preserving properties for density and internal energies in resistive MHD equations using discontinuous Galerkin and WENO finite volume methods, addressing the divergence-free constraint and radiative cooling terms critical to robust code performance.

Psaap IV - high order plasma turbulence modeling for Z-pinch - focused investigatory center develop high-order numerical methods and scientific machine learning techniques that will be applied to the modeling and interpretation of plasmas of fluid and fluid-adjacent regimes, with a particular emphasis on turbulence in magnetized plasmas and radiative magnetic reconnection - two areas of fundamental interest to the department of energy, and proxies for a range of plasma phenomena applicable to high energy density physics experiments and fusion energy such as Z pinches.