Measurement of the Transverse Spitzer Resistivity during Collisional Magnetic Reconnection

Technical Report · Mon Sep 18 00:00:00 EDT 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/809842· OSTI ID:809842

Trintchouk, F; Yamada, M; Ji, H; Kulsrud, R M; Carter, T A

Measurement of the transverse resistivity was carried out in a reconnecting current sheet where the mean free path for the Coulomb collision is smaller than the thickness of the sheet. In a collisional neutral sheet without a guide field, the transverse resistivity is directly related to the reconnection rate. A remarkable agreement is found between the measured resistivity and the classical value derived by L. Spitzer. In his calculation the transverse resistivity for the electrons is higher than the parallel resistivity by a factor of 1.96. The measured values have verified this theory to within 30% errors.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH03073
• OSTI ID: 809842
• Report Number(s): PPPL-3750; TRN: US0302627
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: 18 Sep 2000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
DATA
ELECTRONS
MAGNETIC RECONNECTION
MEAN FREE PATH
THICKNESS
COLLISIONS
RECONNECTION
TRANSPORT COEFFICIENTS