Generalized Ohm's law in a 3-D reconnection experiment

Abstract

We report the measurement of non-ideal terms of the generalized Ohm's law at a reconnection site of a weakly collisional laboratory magnetohydrodynamic plasma. Results show that the Hall term dominates the measured terms; resistive and electron inertia terms are small. We suggest that electron pressure (not measured) supports the observed quasistatic reconnection rate, and that anomalous resistivity, while not ruled out, is not required to account for the results. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.