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Updated: Aug 23, 2025

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Laboratory evidence of magnetic reconnection hampered in obliquely interacting flux tubes
Simon Bolaños1,2, Andrey Sladkov3, Roch Smets2
1LULI - CNRS, CEA, UPMC Univ Paris 06 : Sorbonne Université, Ecole Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, F-91128, Paris, Palaiseau cedex, France.
Abstract:
Magnetic reconnection can occur when two plasmas, having anti-parallel components of the magnetic field, encounter each other. In the reconnection plane, the anti-parallel component of the field is annihilated and its energy released in the plasma. Here, we investigate through laboratory experiments the reconnection between two flux tubes that are not strictly anti-parallel. Compression of the anti-parallel component of the magnetic field is observed, as well as a decrease of the reconnection efficiency. Concomitantly, we observe delayed plasma heating and enhanced particle acceleration. Three-dimensional hybrid simulations support these observations and highlight the plasma heating inhibition and reconnection efficiency reduction for these obliquely oriented flux tubes.
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