Electromagnetic Fluctuations during Fast Reconnection in a Laboratory Plasma

Hantao Ji; Stephen Terry; Masaaki Yamada; Russell Kulsrud; Aleksey Kuritsyn; Yang Ren

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.115001

Electromagnetic Fluctuations during Fast Reconnection in a Laboratory Plasma

Hantao Ji, Stephen Terry, Masaaki Yamada, Russell Kulsrud, Aleksey Kuritsyn, Yang Ren

Astrophysical Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

183 Scopus citations

Abstract

The positive correlation between magnitude of electromagnetic fluctuations and the enhancement of reconnection rates in a laboratory plasma was investigated. The waves were identified as right-hand polarized whistler waves, propagating obliquely to the reconnecting magnetic field. The extremely small resistivity causes the magnetic field to dissipate only in very thin current sheets, which impede the mass outflow and thus limit the reconnection rate. The results show that the LHDI is present only in the low-β edge region of the current sheet, but not in the high-β central region, where the resistivity needs to be enhanced.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	115001
Pages (from-to)	115001-1-115001-4
Journal	Physical review letters
Volume	92
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.115001
State	Published - Mar 19 2004

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

General Physics and Astronomy

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10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.115001

Cite this

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title = "Electromagnetic Fluctuations during Fast Reconnection in a Laboratory Plasma",

abstract = "The positive correlation between magnitude of electromagnetic fluctuations and the enhancement of reconnection rates in a laboratory plasma was investigated. The waves were identified as right-hand polarized whistler waves, propagating obliquely to the reconnecting magnetic field. The extremely small resistivity causes the magnetic field to dissipate only in very thin current sheets, which impede the mass outflow and thus limit the reconnection rate. The results show that the LHDI is present only in the low-β edge region of the current sheet, but not in the high-β central region, where the resistivity needs to be enhanced.",

author = "Hantao Ji and Stephen Terry and Masaaki Yamada and Russell Kulsrud and Aleksey Kuritsyn and Yang Ren",

note = "Funding Information: The authors are grateful to D. Cylinder and R. Cutler for their technical support, and J. Whitney, K. Shen, ?>J. Carter, and T. Carter for their contributions. This work was supported by DOE, NASA, and NSF.",

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AU - Ji, Hantao

AU - Terry, Stephen

AU - Yamada, Masaaki

AU - Kulsrud, Russell

AU - Kuritsyn, Aleksey

AU - Ren, Yang

N1 - Funding Information: The authors are grateful to D. Cylinder and R. Cutler for their technical support, and J. Whitney, K. Shen, ?>J. Carter, and T. Carter for their contributions. This work was supported by DOE, NASA, and NSF.

PY - 2004/3/19

Y1 - 2004/3/19

N2 - The positive correlation between magnitude of electromagnetic fluctuations and the enhancement of reconnection rates in a laboratory plasma was investigated. The waves were identified as right-hand polarized whistler waves, propagating obliquely to the reconnecting magnetic field. The extremely small resistivity causes the magnetic field to dissipate only in very thin current sheets, which impede the mass outflow and thus limit the reconnection rate. The results show that the LHDI is present only in the low-β edge region of the current sheet, but not in the high-β central region, where the resistivity needs to be enhanced.

AB - The positive correlation between magnitude of electromagnetic fluctuations and the enhancement of reconnection rates in a laboratory plasma was investigated. The waves were identified as right-hand polarized whistler waves, propagating obliquely to the reconnecting magnetic field. The extremely small resistivity causes the magnetic field to dissipate only in very thin current sheets, which impede the mass outflow and thus limit the reconnection rate. The results show that the LHDI is present only in the low-β edge region of the current sheet, but not in the high-β central region, where the resistivity needs to be enhanced.

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Electromagnetic Fluctuations during Fast Reconnection in a Laboratory Plasma

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