Authors: S K P Tripathi W Gekelman
Publish Date: 2013/03/08
Volume: 286, Issue: 2, Pages: 479-492
Abstract
A laboratory plasma experiment has been built to study the eruption of arched magnetic flux ropes AMFRs in the presence of a large magnetized plasma This experiment simulates the eruption of solar AMFRs in two essential steps i it produces an AMFR n=60×1012 cm−3 T rm e = 14~mathrmeV B≈1 kilogauss L=051 m with a persistent appearance that lasts several Alfvén transit times using a lanthanum hexaboride LaB6 plasma source and ii it generates controlled plasma flows from the footpoints of the AMFR using laser beams An additional LaB6 plasma source generates a large magnetized plasma in the background The lasergenerated flows trigger the eruption by injecting dense plasma and magnetic flux into the AMFR The experiment is highly reproducible and runs continuously with a 05 Hz repetition rate hence several thousand identical loop eruptions are routinely generated and their spatiotemporal evolution is recorded in threedimensions using computercontrolled movable probes Measurements demonstrate striking similarities between the erupting laboratory and solar arched magnetic flux ropesThe experiment was conducted at the Basic Plasma Science Facility BaPSF at the University of California Los Angeles which is jointly funded by National Science Foundation and Department of Energy The authors thank James Chen Alexander Kosovichev and Steven Spangler for useful discussions and P Pribyl Z Lucky and M Drandell for technical assistance One of the authors SKPT thanks Paul Bellan for his valuable suggestions in deriving the twofluid MHD induction equation
Keywords: