Magnetic Reconnection with Sweet-Parker Characteristics in Two-dimensional Laboratory Plasmas
Authors: H. Ji, M. Yamada, S. Hsu, R. Kulsrud, T. Carter, and S. Zaharia
Magnetic reconnection has been experimentally studied in a well-controlled, two-dimensional laboratory magnetohydrodynamic plasma. The observations are found to be both qualitatively and quantitatively consistent with a generalized Sweet-Parker model which incorporates compressibility, downstream pressure, and the effective resistivity. The latter is significantly enhanced over its classical values in the collisionless limit. This generalized Sweet-Parker model also applies to the case in which an unidirectional, sizable third magnetic component is present.