Intermittent magnetic reconnection in TS-3 merging experiment

Journal Article · Tue Nov 15 04:00:00 EST 2011 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3662434· OSTI ID:22047043

Ono, Y; Hayashi, Y; Ii, T; Tanabe, H; Ito, S; Kuwahata, A; Ito, T; Kamino, Y; Yamada, T; Inomoto, M ^[1]

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1. Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo (Japan)

Ejection of current sheet with plasma mass causes impulsive and intermittent magnetic reconnection in the TS-3 spherical tokamak (ST) merging experiment. Under high guide toroidal field, the sheet resistivity is almost classical due to the sheet thickness much longer than the ion gyroradius. Large inflow flux and low current-sheet resistivity result in flux and plasma pileup followed by rapid growth of the current sheet. When the pileup exceeds a critical limit, the sheet is ejected mechanically from the squeezed X-point area. The reconnection (outflow) speed is slow during the flux/plasma pileup and is fast during the ejection, suggesting that intermittent reconnection similar to the solar flare increases the averaged reconnection speed. These transient effects enable the merging tokamaks to have the fast reconnection as well as the high-power reconnection heating, even when their current-sheet resistivity is low under high guide field.

• OSTI ID: 22047043
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 18; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CHARGED-PARTICLE TRANSPORT
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
IONS
MAGNETIC RECONNECTION
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
PLASMA
PLASMA SHEET
SOLAR FLARES
SPHERICAL CONFIGURATION
TRANSIENTS
TS-3 DEVICE
VELOCITY