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MIT Physics Lecture Series: d Magnetic Reconnection: a Celestial Phenomenon in the Laboratory
Professor Jan Egedal
Wed Jan 13, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
Plasmas, the ionized gas in lightning bolts, tube lights, and most of interstellar space, are generally an excellent conductor of electricity. An important consequence is that generally plasmas are “frozen” to magnetic field lines. Many plasmas, however, can occasionally and rapidly break free, in a process called magnetic reconnection. This process controls the evolution of solar flares, and it allows the solar wind to enter the Earth's magnetosphere. The process of magnetic reconnection is created and studied experimentally on the Versatile Toroidal Facility (VTF). Our analysis reveals that a new mechanism--particle trapping--efficiently facilitates explosive reconnection.
Contact: Nancy Boyce, 4-315, 253-4461, nboyce@mit.edu
Sponsor: Physics
Latest update: 04-Nov-2009
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