This three-year award for U.S.-U.K. cooperative research involves Alexander Ruzmaikin, Michael Freedman and Joan Feynman from California State University/Northridge and Mitchell Berger and Renzo Ricca from University College London, London, United Kingdom. The award provides travel and living expenses for Dr. Ruzmaikin's visits to the United Kingdom. The objective of the research is to investigate the application of the mathematics of topology to solar and heliospheric physics problems. In particular, these applications will address fundamental questions that involve the complex magnetic field of the Sun. They will study the equilibrium and dynamics of magnetic flux tubes in the solar interior and atmosphere and conditions related to the initiation of flares, coronal mass ejections and turbulent flows in the Sun and solar wind. The project is interdisciplinary and brings together U.S. experts in solar physics and U.K. mathematicians.
