Effects of Global Boundary and Local Collisionality on Magnetic Reconnection in a Laboratory Plasma

A. Kuritsyn, H. Ji, S.P. Gerhardt, Y. Ren, and M. Yamada

Princeton University. Plasma Physics Laboratory.

关键词: Collisions Magnetic Reconnection;    70 Plasma Physics And Fusion Technology;    Magnetic Reconnection;    Boundary Conditions;    Magnetic Reconnection;   

RP-ID  :  PPPL-4255
RP-ID  :  DE-ACO2-76CHo3073
RP-ID  :  962701

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

The magnetic reconnection process is studied in a wide range of operating conditions in the well-controlled Magnetic Reconnection Experiment. The reconnection rate is observed to be a function of both global (i.e., system size) and local (collisionality) plasma parameters. When only local collisionality is lowered, the current sheet is shortened while effective resistivity is enhanced, both accelerating reconnection rates. At a fixed collisionality, the current sheet length increases with system size, resulting in the reduction of the reconnection rate. These results quantitatively agree with a generalized Sweet-Parker analysis.