The Hall Effect and Magnetic Fluctuations during Fast Reconnection in MRX

POSTER

Abstract

Recent breakthroughs show that non-MHD effects, including the Hall effect and electromagnetic fluctuations, can facilitate fast magnetic reconnection. A quadrupole out-of-plane magnetic field in the diffusion region is the hallmark of the Hall effect [1]. This quadrupole magnetic field has been clearly observed in the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX) [2,3]. The experimental results show good agreement with simulation results. The Hall effect is found to be more significant in the collisionless regime and becomes small as the collisionality increases. Along with the Hall effect, magnetic fluctuations in the lower-hybrid frequency range have also been observed during magnetic reconnection in MRX. These fluctuations are found in the out-flow region as well as the current sheet center [4]. The interrelationship between the non-MHD effects and fast magnetic reconnection will be discussed along with comparison to space observations. [1] J. Birn et al., J. Geophys. Res., 106, 3715, 2001 [2] M. Yamada et al., Phys. Plasmas, 13, 052119, 2006 [3] Y. Ren et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 95, 055003, 2005 [4] H. Ji et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 92, 115001, 2004

*This work is supported by DOE, NSF and NASA.

Authors

  • Yang Ren

    • Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ

  • Masaaki Yamada

    • Center for Magnetic Self-organization, PPPL, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08543

  • Hantao Ji

    • Princeton University
    • PPPL

  • Stefan Gerhardt

    • Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
    • Princeton Plasma Physics Labratory (PPPL)

  • A. Kuritsyn

    • University of Wisconsin at Madison

  • R. Kulsrud

    • Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

  • H. Torreblanca

    • UCLA
    • University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
    • University of California at Los Angeles