Biermann-Battery reconnection in 3-D colliding laser-driven plasmas

POSTER

Abstract

Recent High Energy Density plasma experiments have demonstrated magnetic reconnection between colliding plasma plumes, where the reconnecting magnetic fields were self-generated in the plasma by the Biermann battery effect. Using fully kinetic 3-D simulations, we show the full evolution of the magnetic fields and plasma in these experiments including self-consistent magnetic field generation about each expanding plume and where the collision of the plumes drives the formation of a current sheet. We observe fast, vertically-localized Biermann-mediated reconnection, a new, inherently 3-D reconnection mechanism where the temperature profile in the current sheet coupled with the out-of-plane ablation density profile conspires to break inflowing field lines, reconnecting the field downstream [1]. We present a simple and general formulation to consider the relevance of Biermann-mediated reconnection in general astrophysical scenarios. In addition, we investigate particle energization due to reconnection within these highly 3-D systems and compare our results with those of 2-D HED reconnection studies.

1) J. Matteucci, W. Fox, A. Bhattacharjee, et al., (2018) arXiv:1710.08556.

arXiv:1710.08556
arXiv:1710.08556

Presenters

  • Jackson VH Matteucci

    Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Phys Lab, Princeton Univ

Authors

  • Jackson VH Matteucci

    Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Phys Lab, Princeton Univ

  • Will Randolph Fox

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

  • 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

  • Derek Schaeffer

    Princeton Univ, Univ of California - Los Angeles, University of California, Los Angeles, Princeton University, Princeton Univ

  • Kai Germaschewski

    University of New Hampshire, Princeton Plasma Phys Lab

  • Clement Moissard

    Ecole Polytechnique