Experimental investigation of three-component magnetic reconnection by use of merging spheromaks and tokamaks

Journal Article · Thu May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1997 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.872337· OSTI ID:560653

Ono, Y; Inomoto, M; Okazaki, T; Ueda, Y ^[1]

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1. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Tokyo, Tokyo (Japan)

A laboratory experiment of magnetic reconnection has been developed in the Tokyo University Spherical Torus (TS-3) [Y. Ono {ital et al.}, Phys. Fluids B {bold 5}, 3691 (1993)] merging device, using two colliding plasma toroids with cohelicity and counterhelicity. The conventional two-component reconnection was extended experimentally to three-component reconnections by introducing a new field component B{sub X} parallel to the X-line, an external force and a reconnection-driven global equilibrium transition. Selective ion heating accompanied by a field-aligned jet was documented during the counterhelicity reconnection without B{sub X}, indicating its direct energy-conversion into the ion thermal energy. Ion heating, current-sheet resistivity and reconnection rate all increase significantly with decreasing B{sub X} and with increasing the external force, indicating three-component and driven effects of reconnection. The anomalous sheet-current dissipation and the ion heating are both found to depend on whether the current-sheet is compressed shorter than the ion gyroradius or not. {copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}

• OSTI ID: 560653
• Report Number(s): CONF-961102--
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 4; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
BETA RATIO
CLOSED PLASMA DEVICES
DIFFUSION
ION TEMPERATURE
MAGNETIC CONFINEMENT
MAGNETIC RECONNECTION
PLASMA HEATING
PLASMA SHEET
TOROIDAL CONFIGURATION