Understanding the dynamics and energetics of magnetic reconnection in a laboratory plasma: Review of recent progress on selected fronts
Here, magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process at work in laboratory, space, and astrophysical plasmas, in which magnetic field lines change their topology and convert magnetic energy to plasma particles by acceleration and heating. One of the most important problems in reconnection research has been to understand why reconnection occurs so much faster than predicted by magnetohydrodynamics theory. Following the recent pedagogical review of this subject [Yamada et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 603 (2010)], this paper presents a review of more recent discoveries and findings in the research of fast magnetic reconnection in laboratory, space, and astrophysical plasmas. In spite of the huge difference in physical scales, we find remarkable commonality between the characteristics of the magnetic reconnection in laboratory and space plasmas. In this paper, we will focus especially on the energy flow, a key feature of the reconnection process. In particular, the experimental results on the energy conversion and partitioning in a laboratory reconnection layer [Yamada et al., Nat. Commun. 5, 4474 (2014)] are discussed and compared with quantitative estimates based on two-fluid analysis. In the Magnetic ReconnectionExperiment, we find that energy deposition to electrons is localized near the X-point and is mostly from the electric fieldmore »
- Publication Date:
- Report Number(s):
- PPPL-5258
Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X; PHPAEN; TRN: US1601753
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-09CH11466; AC0209CH11466
- Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physics of Plasmas
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 23; Journal Issue: 5; Conference: Note: Paper SR1 1, Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 60, 302 (2015) Masaaki Yamada was Invited speaker. 2015 Recipient of the James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics at the American Physical Society March Meeting, San Antonio, TX (United States), 2-6 Mar 2015; Related Information: The digital data for original figures in this paper is available at http://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/handle/88435/dsp01x920g025r; Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Research Org:
- Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Org:
- USDOE
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; magnetic reconnection; diffusion; magnetic fields; magnetohydrodynamics; toroidal plasma confinement
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1257277
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1252580