Ropes of plasma: Onset and stagnation of 3-D magnetic reconnection

Experiments capture behavior of stressed magnetic fields

		IMAGE: These are two magnetized ropes of plasma viewed nearly end on with a fast camera. As the flux ropes become unstable, each rope becomes a helical screw pinch, and gyrates... Click here for more information.

Magnetized plasmas occupy a large fraction of our cosmic universe; they exist on our sun, in the earth's magnetosphere, and in astrophysical plasmas. They also exist in laboratory magnetic fusion grade plasmas, and in other smaller experiments as well. Energy stored in stressed magnetic fields can produce large-scale explosive events that spontaneously evolve and energize particles, owing to unsteady and impulsive local processes in small volumes of space. The abrupt onset and cessation of these events in astrophysical and laboratory plasmas is a long-standing puzzle. The situation is inherently 3-dimensional (3D), which makes computer simulation difficult and requires experiments capable of reproducing 3D phenomena.