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An experimental platform for pulsed-power driven magnetic reconnection

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Title: An experimental platform for pulsed-power driven magnetic reconnection
Authors: Hare, J
Suttle, L
Lebedev, S
Loureiro, N
Ciardi, A
Chittenden, J
Clayson, T
Eardley, S
Garcia, C
Halliday, J
Robinson, T
Smith, R
Stuart, N
Suzuki-Vidal, F
Tubman, E
Item Type: Journal Article
Abstract: We describe a versatile pulsed-power driven platform for magnetic reconnection experiments, based on the exploding wire arrays driven in parallel [Suttle et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 225001 (2016)]. This platform produces inherently magnetised plasma flows for the duration of the generator current pulse (250 ns), resulting in a long-lasting reconnection layer. The layer exists for long enough to allow the evolution of complex processes such as plasmoid formation and movement to be diagnosed by a suite of high spatial and temporal resolution laser-based diagnostics. We can access a wide range of magnetic reconnection regimes by changing the wire material or moving the electrodes inside the wire arrays. We present results with aluminium and carbon wires, in which the parameters of the inflows and the layer that forms are significantly different. By moving the electrodes inside the wire arrays, we change how strongly the inflows are driven. This enables us to study both symmetric reconnection in a range of different regimes and asymmetric reconnection.
Issue Date: 9-Mar-2018
Date of Acceptance: 22-Feb-2018
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/54736
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.5016280
ISSN: 1070-664X
Publisher: AIP Publishing
Journal / Book Title: Physics of Plasmas
Volume: 25
Copyright Statement: © 2018 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Sponsor/Funder: U.S Department of Energy
U.S Department of Energy
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
U.S Department of Energy
Funder's Grant Number: 415942-G
675350-9958
EP/N013379/1
416729-G
Keywords: physics.plasm-ph
0202 Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle And Plasma Physics
0201 Astronomical And Space Sciences
0203 Classical Physics
Fluids & Plasmas
Publication Status: Published
Article Number: 055703
Appears in Collections:Physics
Plasma Physics
Faculty of Natural Sciences