Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar - SPEAKER & TITLE ADDED

ABSTRACT: Magnetic reconnection is a phenomenon of nature in which magnetic field lines change their topology in plasma and convert magnetic energy to particles by acceleration and heating. It is one of the most fundamental processes at work in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas (1). Magnetic reconnection occurs everywhere: in solar flares; coronal mass ejections; the earth’s magnetosphere; in the star forming galaxies; and in plasma fusion devices. This talk focuses on recent discoveries in the fundamental research of magnetic reconnection at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and its application to space astrophysical plasmas. We compare the experimental results from the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX) with those from theory and numerical simulations. The collaboration between space and laboratory scientists on reconnection research has recently reached a point where we can compare measurements of the reconnection layer profile in detail with support from numerical simulations. In spite of the huge difference in physical scales, we find remarkable commonalities in the features of the magnetic reconnection region in laboratory and space-astrophysical plasmas. (1) M. Yamada, R. Kulsrud, H. Ji, Rev. Mod. Phys., v.82, 602, (2010).