The FLARE Device and Its First Plasma Operation

POSTER

Abstract

The FLARE device (Facility for LAboratory Reconnection Experiments; http://flare.pppl.gov) is a new laboratory experiment constructed at Princeton for the studies of magnetic reconnection in the multiple X-line regimes directly relevant to space, solar, astrophysical, and fusion plasmas, as guided by a reconnection phase diagram [Ji \& Daughton, Phys. Plasmas 18, 111207 (2011)]. The first plasma operation was successfully conducted to validate its engineering design and to demonstrate its experimental access to the parameter space of Lundquist number and normalized system size beyond its predecessor, MRX (Magnetic Reconnection eXperiment; http://mrx.pppl.gov). Details on construction completion and first plasma results will be presented; future operation plans - possibly as a user facility - and research plans will be discussed. In addition to the names listed above, The FLARE Team includes A. Bhattacharjee and S. Prager (Princeton Univ.), W. Daughton (LANL), W. Fox, M. Kalish, C. Meyers, Y. Ren, M. Yamada (PPPL), S.D. Bale (UC-Berkeley), T. Carter and S. Dorfman (UCLA), J. Drake (U. Maryland), J. Egedal, J. Sarff, and J. Wallace (UW-Madison).

Presenters

  • Hantao Ji

    Princeton Univ, Princeton Plasma Phys Lab, Princeton Univ, Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Phys Lab, Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Physics Lab

Authors

  • Hantao Ji

    Princeton Univ, Princeton Plasma Phys Lab, Princeton Univ, Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Phys Lab, Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Physics Lab

  • R. Cutler

    PPPL

  • G. Gettelfinger

    Princeton Univ

  • K. Gilton

    PPPL

  • A. Goodman

    Princeton University, Princeton Univ

  • F. Hoffmann

    PPPL

  • J. Jara-Almonte

    PPPL

  • T. Kozub

    Princeton Plasma Phys Lab, PPPL

  • J. Kukon

    Princeton Univ

  • G. Rossi

    PPPL

  • P. Sloboda

    PPPL

  • Jongsoo Yoo

    Princeton Plasma Phys Lab, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, PPPL, Princeton Plasma Physics Lab

  • Amitava Bhattacharjee

    Princeton University, Princeton Univ, Princeton Univ, Princeton Plasma Phys Lab, Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton Univ, LANL, PPPL, UC-Berkeley, UCLA and UW-Madison