Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsh41b1661c&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SH41B-1661
Physics
Plasma Physics
[7500] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy, [7800] Space Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Magnetic helicity conservation is an important global dynamical constraint in self-organized magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) plasmas. It is the basis of Taylor's celebrated theory of magnetic relaxation which has been applied to laboratory plasmas (e.g. the reversed field pinch) as well as to astrophysical plasmas (e.g. the solar corona). Recent results from the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment# (SSX) showing a new example of a relaxed state in an elongated cylindrical conducting boundary are reviewed. It is helical in character, with a pure m=1 azimuthal mode number, and has a flat spatial profile of J/B. These properties are all in good agreement with the computed Taylor minimum energy magnetically relaxed state. Finally, this state consistently emerges despite very different initial conditions, as expected for a self-organized plasma. Dynamical details of the relaxation are described by V. Lukin (this conference). Possible applications for laboratory experiments relevant to various phenomena observed in the corona, solar wind, and magnetosphere are described. *Work supported by the Office of Naval Research #C.D.C. acknowledges prior support from the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation
Amatucci William E.
Cothran C. D.
Lukin Vyacheslav S.
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