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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS,
VOL. 34,
L16106,
5 PP., 2007
doi:10.1029/2007GL030796
Effects of global boundary and local collisionality on magnetic reconnection in a laboratory plasma
Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas, Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
The magnetic reconnection process is studied in a wide range of operating conditions in the well-controlled Magnetic Reconnection Experiment. The reconnection rate is observed to be a function of both global (system size) and local (collisionality) plasma parameters. When only local collisionality is lowered, the current sheet is shortened while effective resistivity is enhanced, both accelerating reconnection rates. At a fixed collisionality, the current sheet length increases with system size, resulting in the reduction of the reconnection rate. These results quantitatively agree with a generalized Sweet-Parker analysis.
Received 30 May 2007; accepted 24 July 2007; published 25 August 2007.
Citation: (2007), Effects of global boundary and local collisionality on magnetic reconnection in a laboratory plasma, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L16106, doi:10.1029/2007GL030796.
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