Finite element modeling of the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX)

Summary form only given. The Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (Hsu, et al. Phys. Plasmas, Vol, 8, pp. 1916-1928 (2001)) is modeled using a two dimensional finite element code. MRX is a laboratory experiment designed to study magnetic reconnection under well diagnosed controlled conditions. While of a much smaller scale than the magnetosphere, this experiment allows a direct analysis of several fundamental physical phenomena occurring in magnetic reconnection, including plasma transport and heating. In the simulations, the equilibrium and transport equations are discretized with finite elements on an unstructured triangular mesh. The equilibrium is obtained from solving the Grad-Shafranov equation. Plasma transport and magnetic reconnection are modeled in a resistive MHD approximation. Specifically, we solve for a reduced set of Maxwell equations, as well as for the conservation of particles, momentum and energy for electrons and ions. Preliminary results are presented for finite helicity, as well as for zero helicity reconnection.