Laboratory experiments of magnetic reconnection in TS-3, TS-4, UTST an…

Recent laboratory merging experiments have solved many key physics of magnetic reconnection, particularly, 1) reconnection heating/ acceleration, 2) fast reconnection mechanism and 3) plasmoid reconnection. A significant reconnection heating over 1keV was documented by the world-largest merging experiment: MAST after detailed 2D elucidation of ion and electron heating characteristics by TS-3 and 4 merging experiments [1]. Their detailed mechanisms were further investigated in collaboration with Hinode satellite observation of solar coronal heating and with various MHD/ particle simulations. Since the TS-3 merging experiment (1986), a series of closed-type (toroidal) reconnection experiments have studied general reconnection physics mostly for space- and astro-physics but now those physics, particularly reconnection heating and flux amplification are being applied to new fusion plasma experiments. This talk reviews major progresses in those international and interdisciplinary reconnection studies for physics and applications of magnetic reconnection.