1. Magnetic Reconnection between Colliding Magnetized Laser-Produced Plasma Plumes.
- Author
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Fiksel, G., Fox, W., Bhattachaijee, A., Bamak, D. H., Chang, P. -Y., Germaschewski, K., Hu, S. X., and Nilson, P. M.
- Subjects
- *
MAGNETIC reconnection , *PLUMES (Fluid dynamics) , *PLASMA flow , *LASER beams , *MAGNETIC fields - Abstract
Observations of magnetic reconnection between colliding plumes of magnetized laser-produced plasma are presented. Two counterpropagating plasma flows are created by irradiating oppositely placed plastic (CH) targets with 1.8-kJ, 2-ns laser beams on the Omega EP Laser System. The interaction region between the plumes is prefilled with a low-density background plasma and magnetized by an externally applied magnetic field, imposed perpendicular to the plasma flow, and initialized with an X-type null point geometry with B = 0 at the midplane and B = 8 T at the targets. The counterflowing plumes sweep up and compress the background plasma and the magnetic field into a pair of magnetized ribbons, which collide, stagnate, and reconnect at the midplane, allowing the first detailed observations of a stretched current sheet in laser-driven reconnection experiments. The dynamics of current sheet formation are in good agreement with first-principles particle-in-cell simulations that model the experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
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