Exploring the effects of magnetic helicity in reconnecting plasma loops

Magnetic helicity is believed to play an important structuring role in coronal reconnection events, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Reconnection is responsible for the topological changes necessary for plasma loops to erupt into the solar wind and, in the process, redistributes energy from magnetic fields to particles, accelerating them to relativistic speeds. Experiments exploring the interaction of magnetized plasma loops have, in the counter-helical configuration, yielded unexpectedly high X-ray fluxes.¹ These results suggest that the energy spectrum of solar cosmic rays is dependent on the relative helicity configurations of the reconnecting loops. This experiment aims to directly measure the particle energy distribution over a full 180-degree range of relative helicity configurations. Here, we present progress in the construction of the pulse plasma discharge system. Our preliminary discharges were supplied by a 2 µF capacitor at 3 kV and reached peak currents of 4 kA. We are re-configuring the device to simultaneously produce two plasma loops as well as expanding the power supply to reach our design current of 20 kA.