Understanding the Dynamics of Magnetic Reconnection Layer
Authors: M. Yamada
Abstract:
We review progress in understanding the dynamics of a typical magnetic reconnection
layer by describing the historical development of theory and the recent findings and
discoveries in space and laboratory plasmas. The emphasis is on the dynamics of electrons
moving with respect to ions in the collision-free neutral sheet. We make a detailed comparison
of experimental results from the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX) with
those from theory and numerical simulations. The collaboration between space and laboratory
scientists on reconnection research has recently reached a point where we can compare
measurements of the reconnection layer profile in detail with support from numerical simulations.
In spite of the large difference in physical scales by 106- 107, we find remarkable
commonalities in the features of the magnetic reconnection region in laboratory and magnetospheric
plasmas. A newly planned laboratory experiment, in which a current sheet is
swept in the way a magnetosphere current sheet crosses space satellites, is also described.
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Submitted to: Space Science Review Review and Presented at: ASA Conference on Magnetic Reconnection in Yosemite
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Download PPPL-4711 (pdf 2.7 MB 19 pp)
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