HR: 17:10h
AN: SM54A-04 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Fast Reconnection and its Nonlinear Stabilization in Laboratory and Magnetospheric Plasmas
AU: * Bhattacharjee, A
EM: amitava.bhattacharjee@unh.edu
AF: Space Science Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, United States
AU: Germaschewski, K
EM: kai.germaschewski@unh.edu
AF: Space Science Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, United States
AB: The onset of fast reconnection is widely studied in toroidal fusion plasmas, dedicated laboratory experiments, and by in situ satellite measurements in the Earth's magnetosphere. These observations place strong constraints on theory, which must explain not only a fast reconnection rate but also a sudden increase in the time- derivative of the reconnection rate, seen, for instance, in sawtooth oscillations in tokamaks and magnetotail substorms. We will show that such dynamics can be accounted for by Hall MHD reconnection models in one unifying framework. The criteria predicted by theory and simulation for the onset of fast reconnection has been tested recently by targeted laboratory experiments such as MRX (at Princeton) and VTF (at MIT). The theory also elucidates the role of diamagnetic drifts that can quench nonlinearly the onset of fast reconnection. Thus, the theory explains not only when reconnection is near-explosive, but also when it is not. We will compare the predictions of theory with data from tokamaks, laboratory experiments, and satellite observations.
DE: 2723 Magnetic reconnection (7526, 7835)
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly