Laboratory breakthrough recreating star formation mechanism wins prestigious John Dawson Award

(Press-News.org) Groundbreaking scientific findings on how swirling matter can form stars, planets and supermassive black holes earned a team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Princeton University the 2025 John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research from the American Physical Society (APS).

The winning team includes Fatima Ebrahimi, Erik Gilson, Hantao Ji and Yin Wang, as well as Princeton University’s Jeremy Goodman. The award recognizes a series of breakthroughs in understanding and recreating a process involving disks of swirling matter in space that wobble in a very specific way. The process leads to turbulence, which causes matter to spiral inward, ultimately forming massive objects in space. 

“Without this dynamic process, stars would not form, and planets and even humankind would not exist,” explained Ji, one of the lead researchers on the project and a principal investigator at PPPL. “It is a very critical process, only possible due to the presence of plasma and magnetic fields: two areas of which PPPL has scientific expertise. The combination of plasma and magnetic fields allows the wobble to happen, which, in turn, enables the formation of stars and planets, and therefore, life itself.”

The team’s achievement culminates more than two decades of persistent effort, combining experimental ingenuity, theoretical insight and advanced computational modeling. Their focus was on an uneven wobble known as magnetorotational instability (MRI). It has long been theorized that this type of wobble can form planets and stars. The team was the first to study it theoretically and then recreate the process in a laboratory setting.

“These findings help us to prove that, yes, these predicted instabilities actually do exist,” said Ebrahimi, a principal research physicist at PPPL’s Theory Department.     

Recreating outer space in a lab

Reproducing MRI at the Laboratory proved exceptionally challenging. Unlike the vast, edge-free environment of outer space, lab experiments must be contained. The cylindrical container introduces an edge that can interfere with the instability. Years of effort were required to minimize these edge effects and isolate the true astrophysical phenomena, making the experimental demonstration of MRI a major scientific achievement.

“It was a new adventure for all of us,” said Goodman, Princeton University professor of astrophysical sciences and co-lead on the research. The adventure began after Ji asked Goodman to give a talk on astrophysics at PPPL. “We just kept at it for 20-plus years.”

Erik Gilson, head of PPPL’s discovery plasma science, puts his fingers into a vat of liquid metal. (Photo credit: Michael Livingston / PPPL Communications Department)

Advancing PPPL’s liquid metals expertise

In space, MRI involves plasma. However, plasma wasn’t practical for studying MRI at the Lab, so liquid metals were used instead. Liquid metals were ideal because they flow like water and conduct electricity. By putting the liquid metals in specially designed, nested cylinders, the scientists were able to precisely adjust the rotation speeds and magnetic field strengths so the MRI could be isolated and studied. MRI research has been a key part of developing PPPL’s liquid metal expertise over the last few decades. Liquid metals are also being investigated for use in fusion systems, with many PPPL researchers working on the best ways to use them.

“The partnerships with Princeton University’s Department of Astrophysics and the resources and expertise here at PPPL are what have made it possible to bring a cosmic process down to Earth and study it in the lab,” said Gilson, head of PPPL’s discovery plasma science. 

Wang, a PPPL staff research physicist, joined the team in 2019, contributing to a project that already had more than a decade of progress. He described the achievement as a true team success. “I learned a lot from the collaborative work, and I am honored to share this award with my colleagues,” he said. 

All team members said they are excited to continue working on this research, including the theoretical and experimental aspects. “We would love to push the system harder, whether that means more magnetic field, faster spinning or building a larger system,” Gilson said.

PPPL has a long history of APS award wins

The John Dawson Award was established to honor recent outstanding achievements in plasma physics. The team will receive the Dawson Award at the annual meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics this November in Long Beach, California. The award includes $5,000 shared among the recipients and support for travel and registration to the annual meeting.

“PPPL has built a remarkable legacy of excellence recognized by the American Physical Society,” said Lab Director Steven Cowley. “This latest win further solidifies our reputation as leaders in plasma physics research.”

PPPL’s excellence in plasma physics research has been consistently recognized by APS. The Lab’s researchers have claimed the John Dawson Award multiple times in recent years, with Hong Qin receiving the honor in 2023 and William Fox in 2020.

The Lab’s legacy extends to the APS James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics, beginning with PPPL founder Lyman Spitzer, who received the inaugural award in 1975. This year’s winner of the Maxwell Prize is William Heidbrink, a PPPL alumnus now at the University of California-Irvine. Greg Hammett and former Associate Laboratory Director Bill Dorland shared the prize in 2024. Many other PPPL researchers have also earned the Maxwell Prize over the years, including Nathaniel Fisch, Russell Kulsrud, Amitava Bhattacharjee and Masaaki Yamada. 

Collaborators on the MRI project include Michael Burin, Kyle Caspary, Dahan Choi, Eric Edlund, Christophe Gissinger, Frank Jenko, Akira Kageyama, Karl Lackner, Wei Liu, Mark Nornberg, Austin Roach, Ethan Schartman, Erik Spence, Xing Wei and Himawan Winarto. The project has been supported by the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences’ General Plasma Science program through grants and collaborations under the Max-Planck-Princeton Center for Fusion and Astro Plasma Physics and the Center for Momentum Transport and Flow Organization in Plasmas and Magnetofluids, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Astronomical Sciences and the NSF Division of Physics through collaboration under the Physics Frontier Center for Magnetic Self-Organization and the NASA Astrophysics Research and Analysis Program.

PPPL is mastering the art of using plasma — the fourth state of matter — to solve some of the world’s toughest science and technology challenges. Nestled on Princeton University’s Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro, New Jersey, our research ignites innovation in a range of applications including fusion energy, nanoscale fabrication, quantum materials and devices, and sustainability science. The University manages the Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the nation’s single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences. Feel the heat at https://energy.gov/science and https://www.pppl.gov.  

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