Extreme ultra-violet burst, particle heating, and whistler wave emission in fast magnetic reconnection induced by kink-driven Rayleigh-Taylor instability

Abstract

A spatially localized energetic extreme ultra-violet (EUV) burst is imaged at the presumed position of fast magnetic reconnection in a plasma jet produced by a coaxial helicity injection source; this EUV burst indicates strong localized electron heating. A circularly polarized high frequency magnetic field perturbation is simultaneously observed at some distance from the reconnection region indicating that the reconnection emits whistler waves and that Hall dynamics likely governs the reconnection. Spectroscopic measurement shows simultaneous fast ion heating. The electron heating is consistent with Ohmic dissipation, while the ion heating is consistent with ion trajectories becoming stochastic.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2016
Source ID
10.1063/1.4944390

Entities

People

  • Kil-Byoung Chai
  • Paul M. Bellan
  • Xiang Zhai

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • California Institute of Technology
  • National Science Foundation
  • United States Department of Energy

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.
  • Space/Atmospheric Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics