Formation and structure of a current sheet in pulsed-power driven magnetic reconnection experiments
Name
1705.10594.pdf
Size
8.85 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
703b7397279a4a63b238602755ee7b94
Author(s)
Hare, J. D.
Lebedev, S. V.
Suttle, L. G.
Ciardi, A.
Burdiak, G. C.
Chittenden, J. P.
Clayson, T.
Eardley, S. J.
Garcia, C.
Halliday, J. W. D.
Date Issued
September 2017
Journal
Physics of Plasmas
Publisher
AIP Publishing
Citation
Hare, J. D., et al. “Formation and Structure of a Current Sheet in Pulsed-Power Driven Magnetic Reconnection Experiments.” Physics of Plasmas, vol. 24, no. 10, Oct. 2017, p. 102703. © 2017 Authors
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
We describe magnetic reconnection experiments using a new, pulsed-power driven experimental platform in which the inflows are super-sonic but sub-Alfvénic. The intrinsically magnetised plasma flows are long lasting, producing a well-defined reconnection layer that persists over many hydrodynamic time scales. The layer is diagnosed using a suite of high resolution laser based diagnostics, which provide measurements of the electron density, reconnecting magnetic field, inflow and outflow velocities, and the electron and ion temperatures. Using these measurements, we observe a balance between the power flow into and out of the layer, and we find that the heating rates for the electrons and ions are significantly in excess of the classical predictions. The formation of plasmoids is observed in laser interferometry and optical self-emission, and the magnetic O-point structure of these plasmoids is confirmed using magnetic probes.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4986012
