Related papers: Electron and ion heating characteristics during ma…
Magnetic reconnection and associated heating of ions and electrons in strongly magnetised, weakly collisional plasmas are studied by means of gyrokinetic simulations. It is shown that an appreciable amount of the released magnetic energy is…
The onset of the acceleration of ions during magnetic reconnection is explored via particle-in-cell simulations in the limit of a strong ambient guide field that self-consistently and simultaneously follow the motions of protons and…
Gyrokinetic simulations of magnetic reconnection are presented to investigate plasma heating for strongly magnetized, weakly collisional plasmas. For a low plasma beta case, parallel and perpendicular phase mixing strongly enhance energy…
In the merging-compression method of plasma start-up, two flux-ropes with parallel toroidal current are formed around in-vessel poloidal field coils, before merging to form a spherical tokamak plasma. This start-up method, used in the…
Electron bulk heating during magnetic reconnection with symmetric inflow conditions is examined using kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. The degree of electron heating is well correlated with the inflowing Alfv\'en speed $c_{Ar}$…
This work presents a magnetic reconnection experiment in which the kinetic, magnetic and thermal properties of the plasma each play an important role in the overall energy balance and structure of the generated reconnection layer. Magnetic…
Edge-localized-mode (ELM) filaments are crucial for cross-field transport at the tokamak edge; yet, their dynamics are often analyzed using the cold-ion approximation, despite experimental data indicating that Ti~Te . This study employs a…
The plasma heating during collisionless magnetic reconnection is investigated using particle-in-cell simulations. We analyze the time evolution of the plasma temperature associated with the motion of the reconnecting flux tube, where the…
In a small spherical tokamak with minor radius of 0.22 m and toroidal magnetic field of 1 T, it is possible to heat ions of a sufficiently dense plasma to an extremely high temperature up to 50 million Kelvin. To do this, it is necessary to…
Twisted magnetic flux ropes are ubiquitous in space and laboratory plasmas, and the merging of such flux ropes through magnetic reconnection is an important mechanism for restructuring magnetic fields and releasing free magnetic energy. The…
Magnetic reconnection in strongly magnetized (low-beta), weakly collisional plasmas is investigated using a novel fluid-kinetic model [Zocco & Schekochihin, Phys. Plasmas 18, 102309 (2011)] which retains non-isothermal electron kinetics. It…
Experimental data from the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) is used to show that the inverse gradient scale length of the ion temperature R/LTi (normalized to the major radius R) has its strongest local correlation with the rotational…
New results from MAST are presented that focus on validating models in order to extrapolate to future devices. Measurements during start-up experiments have shown how the bulk ion temperature rise scales with the square of the reconnecting…
We report on the experimental observation of electron heating in electron-only magnetic reconnection in laser-driven laboratory mini-magnetospheres on the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) at the University of California, Los Angeles. In this…
Tokamak plasmas are confined by a magnetic field that limits the particle and heat transport perpendicular to the field. Parallel to the field the ionised particles can move freely, so to obtain confinement the field lines are "closed" (ie.…
The physical processes that control the partition of released magnetic energy between electrons and ions during reconnection is explored through particle-in-cell simulations and analytical techniques. We demonstrate that the development of…
Electron heating and mixing during asymmetric reconnection are studied with a 3D kinetic simulation that matches plasma parameters from Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft observations of a magnetopause diffusion region. The mixing…
We investigate electron heating by magnetic-field-aligned electric fields ($E_\parallel$) during anti-parallel magnetic reconnection in the Earth's magnetotail. Using a statistical sample of 140 reconnection outflows, we infer the…
Using particle-in-cell simulations and kinetic theory, we explore the current-driven turbulence and associated electron heating in the dissipation region during 3D magnetic reconnection with a guide field. At late time the turbulence is…
We investigate the kinetic effects of upstream, magnetic field-aligned, flow shear on anti-parallel magnetic reconnection using 2.5D Particle-In-Cell simulations. Our results demonstrate that flow shear significantly alters the reconnection…