Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-2026
Abstract
Impulse scaling during magnetic reconnection, the magnetic energy conversion to kinetic energy, via direct Mach probe measurements in Magnetic Reconnection Experiment is examined. Ion exhaust velocity and impulse scalings with reconnecting magnetic field during the push phase of driven reconnection are presented. The outflows and impulse measurements are compared with global MHD simulations. Both measurements and simulations reveal a favorable scaling, greater than linear, of impulse with reconnecting field. These scaling results establish that magnetic reconnection could be utilized for plasma propulsion.
Source Publication
Physics of Plasmas (ISSN 1070-664X | eISSN 1089-7674)
Recommended Citation
Ebrahimi, F., O’Gorman, N., Maheshwari, K., Yoo, J., Sainterme, A., & Ji, H. (2026). Measurements and scaling of ion propulsion impulse during driven magnetic reconnection. Physics of Plasmas, 33(5), 050704. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0320433
Included in
Electromagnetics and Photonics Commons, Plasma and Beam Physics Commons, Propulsion and Power Commons
Comments
This work was selected by Physics of Plasmas as an Editor's Pick article
© 2026 The Authors.
This article is published by American Institute of Physics (AIP), licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Sourced from the published version of record cited below.
Originally presented at the 2nd European Conference on Magnetic Reconnection in Plasmas