Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agufmsm51c..06e&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #SM51C-06
Physics
0654 Plasmas
Scientific paper
Plasma dynamics around a magnetic X-point and magnetic reconnection in the collisionless regime are studied on the Versatile Toroidal Facility. Ar and H plasmas are created by ECRH with densities and temperatures in the range of 1017 m-3 and 20 eV. The magnetic configuration is based on a magnetic cusp forming an X-line at the center of the device and a toroidal magnetic field. Reconnection is driven by inducing a toroidal electric field using an ohmic transformer. The response of the plasma is measured in terms of poloidal distribution and time evolution of plasma density, flows, magnetic flux and currents. Fast collisionless reconnection is observed experimentally. The detailed evolution of the profiles of plasma density, current density, and electrostatic potential at the onset of driven reconnection is reconstructed experimentally in the collisionless regime, for the first time. Despite a constant, externally imposed reconnection drive, we show that the reconnection does not proceed in a steady-state manner. The formation and decay of the current is shown to be related to the evolution of the electrostatic potential and the associated ion polarization currents. The size of the diffusion region is inferred from the detailed knowledge of the electrostatic potential, and is shown to be insensitive to the ion mass and plasma density. Within the limit of two fluid theories it is shown that electron momentum balance can only be fulfilled with the inclusion of off diagonal terms in the electron pressure tensor.
Dorris J.
Egedal Jan
Fasoli A.
Nazemi J.
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