Journal ArticleDOI
A thruster using magnetic reconnection to create a high-speed plasma jet
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TLDR
In this paper, a pulsed magnetic reconnection thruster consisting of two parallel-connected slit coaxial tubes was constructed and operated in argon plasma produced by RF energy at 13.56 MHz.Abstract:
Plasma thrusters propel spacecraft by the application of Lorentz forces to ionized propellants. Despite evidence that Lorentz forces resulting from magnetic reconnection in solar flares and Earth's magnetopause produce jets of energetic particles, magnetic reconnection has only recently been considered as a means of accelerating plasma in a thruster. Based on theoretical principles, a pulsed magnetic reconnection thruster consisting of two parallel-connected slit coaxial tubes was constructed. The thruster was operated in argon plasma produced by RF energy at 13.56 MHz. A 1.0 ms current pulse of up to 1500 A was applied to the tubes. Three results provide evidence for magnetic reconnection. (1) The production of high-energy electrons resembling the outflow that is observed in the reconnection of field lines in solar flares and in laboratory experiments. (2) The high-energy electron current coincided with the rise of the magnetic field in the thruster and was followed by a large ion current. (3) In accordance with known physics of magnetic reconnection, ion currents were found to increase as the plasma became less collisional. The Alfven speed of the outflowing ions was calculated to be 8.48 × 103 m s− 1 corresponding to an Isp of 860 s.read more
Citations
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Progress in Understanding Magnetic Reconnection in Laboratory and Space Astrophysical Plasmas
TL;DR: Yamada et al. as mentioned in this paper reviewed the progress in understanding the fundamental physics of magnetic reconnection, focusing on significant results in the past decade from dedicated laboratory experiments, numerical simulations, and space astrophysical observations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Magnetic Reconnection in the Space Sciences: Past, Present, and Future
TL;DR: Magnetic reconnection is a key energy conversion and transport process in space and in the laboratory as discussed by the authors, which facilitates energy conversion over dimensions of, in some cases, hundreds of Earth radii.
Journal ArticleDOI
External magnetic field guiding in HiPIMS to control sp3 fraction of tetrahedral amorphous carbon films
Behnam Akhavan,R. Ganesan,Stephen N. Bathgate,Dougal G. McCulloch,Jim G. Partridge,Mihail Ionsecu,Dave T A Mathews,Michael Stueber,Sven Ulrich,David R. McKenzie,Marcela M.M. Bilek +10 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors demonstrate the use of a magnetic field with a high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) source as a simple, new approach to give control over the sp3 fraction.
Journal ArticleDOI
An Alfvenic reconnecting plasmoid thruster
TL;DR: In this article, a new concept for generation of thrust for space propulsion is introduced, which utilizes a current-sheet instability to spontaneously and continuously create plasmoids via magnetic reconnection, and the generated low-temperature plasma is simulated in a global annular geometry using the extended magnetohydrodynamic model.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Sweet's mechanism for merging magnetic fields in conducting fluids
TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that two oppositely directed sunspot fields with scales of 104 km could be merged by Sweet's mechanism, if shoved firmly together, in about two weeks; their normal interdiffusion time would be of the order of 600 years.
Book
Magnetic Reconnection: MHD Theory and Applications
Eric Priest,Terry G. Forbes +1 more
TL;DR: Magnetic reconnection is at the core of many dynamic phenomena in the universe, such as solar flares, geomagnetic substorms and tokamak disruptions as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Tail reconnection triggering substorm onset.
Vassilis Angelopoulos,James P. McFadden,Davin Larson,C. W. Carlson,Stephen B. Mende,Harald U. Frey,Tai Phan,David G. Sibeck,Karl-Heinz Glassmeier,Uli Auster,Eric Donovan,Ian R. Mann,I. Jonathan Rae,Christopher T. Russell,Andrei Runov,Xu-Zhi Zhou,Larry Kepko +16 more
TL;DR: Results demonstrate that substorms are likely initiated by tail reconnection, and are reported on simultaneous measurements in the magnetotail at multiple distances, at the time of substorm onset.
Journal ArticleDOI
Role of electron physics in the development of turbulent magnetic reconnection in collisionless plasmas
William Daughton,Vadim Roytershteyn,Homa Karimabadi,Lin Yin,Brian J. Albright,B. Bergen,Kevin J. Bowers +6 more
TL;DR: In this article, Petaflop-scale simulations of the evolution of turbulent magnetic reconnection in a three-dimensional plasma indicate that it proceeds in a way that is dramatically different from classical theory.
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