Identification of the Electron-Diffusion Region during Magnetic Reconnection in a Laboratory Plasma

Yang Ren; Masaaki Yamada; Hantao Ji; Stefan P. Gerhardt; Russell Kulsrud

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.085003

Identification of the Electron-Diffusion Region during Magnetic Reconnection in a Laboratory Plasma

Yang Ren, Masaaki Yamada, Hantao Ji, Stefan P. Gerhardt, Russell Kulsrud

Astrophysical Sciences

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61 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report the first identification of the electron-diffusion region, where demagnetized electrons are accelerated to super-Alfvénic speed, in a reconnecting laboratory plasma. The width of the electron-diffusion region scales with the electron skin depth [∼(5.5-7.5)c/ωpe] and the peak electron outflow velocity scales with the electron Alfvén velocity [∼(0.12-0.16)VeA], independent of ion mass.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	085003
Journal	Physical review letters
Volume	101
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.085003
State	Published - Aug 22 2008

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

General Physics and Astronomy

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10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.085003

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abstract = "We report the first identification of the electron-diffusion region, where demagnetized electrons are accelerated to super-Alfv{\'e}nic speed, in a reconnecting laboratory plasma. The width of the electron-diffusion region scales with the electron skin depth [∼(5.5-7.5)c/ωpe] and the peak electron outflow velocity scales with the electron Alfv{\'e}n velocity [∼(0.12-0.16)VeA], independent of ion mass.",

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AU - Ren, Yang

AU - Yamada, Masaaki

AU - Ji, Hantao

AU - Gerhardt, Stefan P.

AU - Kulsrud, Russell

PY - 2008/8/22

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AB - We report the first identification of the electron-diffusion region, where demagnetized electrons are accelerated to super-Alfvénic speed, in a reconnecting laboratory plasma. The width of the electron-diffusion region scales with the electron skin depth [∼(5.5-7.5)c/ωpe] and the peak electron outflow velocity scales with the electron Alfvén velocity [∼(0.12-0.16)VeA], independent of ion mass.

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Identification of the Electron-Diffusion Region during Magnetic Reconnection in a Laboratory Plasma

Abstract

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