Formation and Structure of a Current Sheet in Pulsed-Power Driven Magnetic Reconnection Experiments
Abstract
We describe magnetic reconnection experiments using a new, pulsed-power driven experimental platform in which the inflows are super-sonic but sub-Alfv\'enic.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.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1705.10594,
title = {Formation and Structure of a Current Sheet in Pulsed-Power Driven Magnetic Reconnection Experiments},
author = {J. D. Hare and S. V. Lebedev and L. G. Suttle and N. F. Loureiro and A. Ciardi and G. C. Burdiak and J. P. Chittenden and T. Clayson and S. J. Eardley and C. Garcia and J. W. D. Halliday and N. Niasse and T. Robinson and R. A. Smith and N. Stuart and F. Suzuki-Vidal and G. F. Swadling and J. Ma and J. Wu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1705.10594},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
14 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in Physics of Plasmas