Laboratory observation of plasmoid-dominated magnetic reconnection in hybrid collisional-collisionless regime

Abstract

Magnetic reconnection, breaking and reorganization of magnetic field topology, is a fundamental process for rapid release of magnetic energy into plasmas that occurs pervasively throughout the universe. In natural circumstances, the plasma properties on either side of the reconnection layer are almost asymmetric, in particular for the collision rates that critically determine the underlying reconnection mechanism. To date, all laboratory experiments on magnetic reconnections have been limited to purely collisional or collisionless regimes. Here, we report a well-designed experimental investigation on magnetic reconnections in a hybrid collisional-collisionless regime by interactions between laser-ablated copper and plastic plasmas. We directly observe the topology evolutions of the whole process of this asymmetric magnetic reconnection by highly-resolved proton radiography. Through this, we show that the growth rate of tearing instability in such a hybrid regime is still extremely large, resulting in rapid formation of multiple plasmoids and generation of plasmoid-dominated current sheet.