Anisotropic Ion Heating and Tail Generation during Tearing Mode Magnetic Reconnection in a High-Temperature Plasma

R. M. Magee, D. J. Den Hartog, S. T. A. Kumar, A. F. Almagri, B. E. Chapman, G. Fiksel, V. V. Mirnov, E. D. Mezonlin, and J. B. Titus

Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 065005 – Published 4 August 2011

Abstract

Complementary measurements of ion energy distributions in a magnetically confined high-temperature plasma show that magnetic reconnection results in both anisotropic ion heating and the generation of suprathermal ions. The anisotropy, observed in the $C^{+ 6}$ impurity ions, is such that the temperature perpendicular to the magnetic field is larger than the temperature parallel to the magnetic field. The suprathermal tail appears in the majority ion distribution and is well described by a power law to energies 10 times the thermal energy. These observations may offer insight into the energization process.

Received 31 March 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.065005

Authors & Affiliations

R. M. Magee^1,*, D. J. Den Hartog^1,2, S. T. A. Kumar^1,2, A. F. Almagri^1,2, B. E. Chapman¹, G. Fiksel^1,2,†, V. V. Mirnov^1,2, E. D. Mezonlin³, and J. B. Titus³

¹Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
²Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
³Department of Physics, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, Florida 32307, USA

^*richard.magee@mail.wvu.edu
^†Present address: Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Rochester, NY 14623, USA.