3D RECONNECTION AND FLOW DYNAMICS IN THE SSX EXPERIMENT

Journal Article · Sun Jul 26 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3204572· OSTI ID:21344355

Brown, M R; Cothran, C D; Cohen, D H; Horwitz, J; Chaplin, V ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Center for Magnetic Self Organization, Swarthmore College Swarthmore, PA 19081-1397 (United States)

Several new experimental results are reported from plasma merging studies at the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment (SSX) with relevance to collisionless three-dimensional magnetic reconnection in laboratory and space plasmas. First, recent high-resolution velocity measurements of impurity ions using ion Doppler spectroscopy (IDS) show bi-directional outflow jets at 40 km/s (nearly the Alfven speed). The SSX IDS instrument measures with 1 mus or better time resolution the width and Doppler shift of the C{sub III} impurity (H plasma) 229.7 nm line to determine the temperature and line-averaged flow velocity during spheromak merging events. High flow speeds are corroborated using an in situ Mach probe. Second, ion heating to nearly 10{sup 6} K is observed after reconnection events in a low-density kinetic regime. Transient electron heating is inferred from bursts on a 4-channel soft x-ray array as well as vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy. Third, the out-of-plane magnetic field and the in-plane Lorentz force in a reconnection volume both show a quadrupolar structure at the ion inertial scale (c/omega{sub pi}). Time resolved vector magnetic field measurements on a 3D lattice B(r, t)) enables this measurement. Earlier work at SSX has shown that formation of three-dimensional structure at the ion inertial scale is temporally and spatially correlated with the observation of superthermal, super-Alfvenic ions accelerated along the X-line normal to the local 2D plane of reconnection. Each of these measurements will be related to and compared with similar observations in a solar or space context. Keywords: spheromak, flow, heating.

• OSTI ID: 21344355
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1154, Issue 1; Conference: 7. symposium on current trends in international fusion research, Washington, DC (United States), 5-9 Mar 2007; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3204572; (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
COLLISIONLESS PLASMA
DOPPLER EFFECT
ELECTRONS
IONS
LORENTZ FORCE
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETIC RECONNECTION
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS
PLASMA HEATING
PLASMA IMPURITIES
RELATIVISTIC PLASMA
SOFT X RADIATION
SPHEROMAK DEVICES
TIME RESOLUTION
TRANSIENTS
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
VELOCITY
CHARGED PARTICLES
CLOSED PLASMA DEVICES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HEATING
IMPURITIES
IONIZING RADIATIONS
LEPTONS
PLASMA
RADIATIONS
RESOLUTION
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
TIMING PROPERTIES
TOKAMAK DEVICES
X RADIATION