Electron Heating and Light Emission During Magnetic Field Line Annihilation

Details Electron Heating and Light Emission During Magnetic Field Line Annihilation Electron Heating and Light Emission During Magnetic Field Line Annihilation

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsm41a1433u&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SM41A-1433

Physics

2723 Magnetic Reconnection (7526, 7835), 7526 Magnetic Reconnection (2723, 7835), 7852 Solitons And Solitary Waves (4455)

Scientific paper

Large amplitude whistler modes are excited with magnetic loop antennas in a large laboratory plasma (1~m diam, 2.5~m length, 10^{12}~cm-3, 2~eV, 5~G). When the loop excites modes with field topologies of spheromaks, strong electron heating and light emissions are observed. Negligible electron heating occurs when the loop field is reversed. Internal probe measurements reveal that electrons are heated only in the presence of a closed toroidal magnetic null layer which carries a strong current driven by an inductive electric field. In the opposite polarity, the whistler mode of mirror topology is generated by electron Hall currents which create no dissipation. The electron distribution in whistler spheromaks frequently exhibits energetic tails. When the electron energy exceeds ~10~eV, inelastic collisions with neutrals and ions produce visible light. Time and space-resolved light measurements show that the source of light is the toroidal current ring which propagates slower than the thermal speed of the electrons. A stationary observer sees a light pulse from a propagating whistler spheromak. When two spheromaks collide inelastically and form a whistler FRC, the light duration lasts for about half an rf period during which all the free magnetic energy is lost. These findings are of importance to strong whistler turbulence since they provide evidence for rapid electron heating. Work supported by USAF Materiel Command and NSF PHY.

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