Electromagnetic Fluctuations during Fast Reconnection in a Laboratory Plasma

Technical Report · Tue Feb 11 00:00:00 EST 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/811969· OSTI ID:811969

Ji, Hantao; Terry, Stephen; Yamada, Masaaki; Kulsrud, Russell; Kuritsyn, Aleksey; Ren, Yang

Clear evidence for a positive correlation is established between the magnitude of magnetic fluctuations in the lower-hybrid frequency range and enhancement of reconnection rates in a well-controlled laboratory plasma. The fluctuations belong to the right-hand polarized whistler wave branch, propagating obliquely to the reconnecting magnetic field, with a phase velocity comparable to the relative drift velocity between electrons and ions. The short coherence length and large variation along the propagation direction indicate their strongly nonlinear nature in three dimensions.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH03073
• OSTI ID: 811969
• Report Number(s): PPPL-3784; TRN: US0303291
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: 11 Feb 2003
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
COHERENCE LENGTH
DIMENSIONS
ELECTRONS
FLUCTUATIONS
FREQUENCY RANGE
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PHASE VELOCITY
PLASMA
VELOCITY
WHISTLERS
DIFFUSION
ANOMALOUS
RECONNECTION
WHISTLER WAVES