Structure of a Magnetic Flux Annihilation Layer Formed by the Collision of Supersonic, Magnetized Plasma Flows.
We present experiments characterizing the detailed structure of a current layer, generated by the collision of two counterstreaming, supersonic and magnetized aluminum plasma flows. The antiparallel magnetic fields advected by the flows are found to be mutually annihilated inside the layer, giving rise to a bifurcated current structure-two narrow current sheets running along the outside surfaces of the layer. Measurements with Thomson scattering show a fast outflow of plasma along the layer and a high ion temperature (T_{i}∼Z[over ¯]T_{e}, with average ionization Z[over ¯]=7). Analysis of the spatially resolved plasma parameters indicates that the advection and subsequent annihilation of the inflowing magnetic flux determines the structure of the layer, while the ion heating could be due to the development of kinetic, current-driven instabilities.
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom.
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Suttle
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom.
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Hare
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom.
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Lebedev
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom.
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Swadling
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom.
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Burdiak
Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Universités Paris 6, UMR 8112, LERMA, Paris F-75005, France.|LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, UMR 8112, Paris F-75014, France.
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Ciardi
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom.
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Chittenden
Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
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Loureiro
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom.
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Niasse
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom.
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Suzuki-Vidal
State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
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Wu
Institute of Fluid Physics, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621900, China.
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Yang
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom.
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Clayson
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
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Frank
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom.
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Robinson
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom.
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Smith
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom.
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Stuart