The Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX), a Fundamental Study of Magnetic Reconnection in Merging Plasmas

Details The Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX), a Fundamental Study of Magnetic Reconnection in Merging Plasmas The Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX), a Fundamental Study of Magnetic Reconnection in Merging Plasmas

Nov 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996aps..dpp..1r04y&link_type=abstract

American Physical Society, Division of Plasma Physics Meeting, November 10-15, 1996, abstract #1R.04

Physics

Plasma Physics

Scientific paper

Since Oct. '95, the MRX devicefootnote M. Yamada, et al., Bull. APS. 44, 1877 (1995). has been operated at PPPL to investigate the fundamental physics of magnetic reconnection, a key physics process in solar flare physics, magnetospheric physics, astrophysics, and laboratory experiments. Experiments with full 3-D magnetic reconnection are now possible. The MRX device generates two annular plasmas by inducing currents around two flux cores. The two toroidal plasmas can be made to merge together on a common axis with or without breaking off from the flux cores. Lundquist number S ranges from 100 to 1000 and the plasma sizes are approximately 30-100 ion gyroradii. Diagnostics include magnetic and Langmuir probes, spectroscopy, and measurement of flows and topology. The important results include (i) identification of X-, Y-, O-shaped diffusion regions, the origins of which depend on the angle of the field lines, (ii) dependence of the reconnection rate on the merging angle of field lines, (iii) helicity inventory during the merging of plasmas, and (iv) evolution of plasma parameters of the diffusion region during reconnection. The results are analyzed quantitatively in light of basic MHD equations. An overview of our results to date will be presented and compared with the leading 2-D theoretical models.

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