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Experimental Observation Of Energetic Ions Accelerated By Three-Dimensional Magnetic Reconnection In A Laboratory Plasma, Michael R. Brown, C. D. Cothran, Matthew Joseph Landreman , '03, David J. Schlossberg , '01, W. H. Matthaeus
Experimental Observation Of Energetic Ions Accelerated By Three-Dimensional Magnetic Reconnection In A Laboratory Plasma, Michael R. Brown, C. D. Cothran, Matthew Joseph Landreman , '03, David J. Schlossberg , '01, W. H. Matthaeus
Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works
Magnetic reconnection is widely believed responsible for heating the solar corona as well as for generating X-rays and energetic particles in solar flares. On astrophysical scales, reconnection in the intergalactic plasma is a prime candidate for a local source (Mpc) of cosmic rays exceeding the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff (∼10(19) eV). In a laboratory astrophysics experiment, we have made the first observation of particles accelerated by magnetic reconnection events to energies significantly above both the thermal and the characteristic magnetohydrodynamic energies. These particles are correlated temporally and spatially with the formation of three-dimensional magnetic structures in the reconnection region.
Energetic Particles From Three-Dimensional Magnetic Reconnection Events In The Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment, Michael R. Brown, C. D. Cothran, Matthew J. Landreman , '03, David J. Schlossberg , '01
Energetic Particles From Three-Dimensional Magnetic Reconnection Events In The Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment, Michael R. Brown, C. D. Cothran, Matthew J. Landreman , '03, David J. Schlossberg , '01
Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works
Measurements are presented from the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment (SSX) [M. R. Brown, Phys. Plasmas 6, 1717 (1999)] showing a population of superthermal, super-Alfvénic ions with Ē≅90 eV and Emax⩾200 eV accelerated by reconnection activity in three-dimensional magnetic structures. These energetic ions are temporally and spatially correlated with three-dimensional magnetic reconnection events (measured with a 3D probe array) and are accelerated along the X-line normal to the local 2D plane of reconnection. In a typical SSX discharge, the peak reconnection electromotive force ℰ=vBL⩽(105 m/s)(0.05 T)(0.1 m)=500 V consistent with our observations. In addition, test particle simulations using magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) data from …
Effective Index Of Refraction, Optical Rotation, And Circular Dichroism In Isotropic Chiral Liquid Crystals, D. Lacoste, Peter J. Collings, T. C. Lubensky
Effective Index Of Refraction, Optical Rotation, And Circular Dichroism In Isotropic Chiral Liquid Crystals, D. Lacoste, Peter J. Collings, T. C. Lubensky
Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works
This paper concerns optical properties of the isotropic phase above the isotropic-cholesteric transition and of the blue phase BP III. We introduce an effective index, which describes spatial dispersion effects such as optical rotation, circular dichroism, and the modification of the average index due to the fluctuations. We derive the wavelength dependence of these spatial dispersion effects quite generally without relying on an expansion in powers of the chirality and without assuming that the pitch of the cholesteric P is much shorter than the wavelength of the light lambda, an approximation that has been made in previous studies of this …
Liquid Crystals: Nature's Delicate Phase Of Matter, Peter J. Collings
Liquid Crystals: Nature's Delicate Phase Of Matter, Peter J. Collings
Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works
No abstract provided.