{"paper":{"title":"Delayed current sheet formation due to an external field in pulsed-power-driven reconnection experiments","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"A strong external magnetic field delays current sheet formation by creating a void between colliding plasma flows instead of a dense reconnection layer.","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"physics.plasm-ph","authors_text":"A. P. Shah, B. J. Sporer, D. M. Johnson, G. V. Dowhan, J. D. Hare, J. Lee, M. Chen, N. M. Jordan, R. D. McBride, R. Shapovalov, T. W. O. Varnish","submitted_at":"2026-05-14T21:18:27Z","abstract_excerpt":"We present results from pulsed-power-driven magnetic reconnection experiments, in which we drove two exploding wire arrays in parallel to produce colliding plasma flows with anti-parallel magnetic fields of 1.2$\\pm$0.2 T. The experimental volume was surrounded by a Helmholtz coil pair capable of externally applying a field of up to 2 T, parallel to the reconnecting electric field. We diagnosed these experiments using laser interferometric imaging in the direction of the anti-parallel magnetic fields, gated extreme ultraviolet pinhole imaging, and in situ inductive probes. For zero and weak (0."},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"When a strong external field (2 T) is applied, we observe a void between the arrays rather than a dense layer, and we hypothesise that the external field is frozen out of the plasma and provides a back-pressure which decelerates the flows.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"The external magnetic field remains frozen into the plasma on the experimental timescale and therefore exerts a sustained back-pressure on the incoming flows (stated in the hypothesis paragraph of the abstract).","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"Strong external magnetic fields applied parallel to the reconnecting electric field delay current-sheet formation in pulsed-power-driven reconnection by creating back-pressure that slows plasma inflows.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"A strong external magnetic field delays current sheet formation by creating a void between colliding plasma flows instead of a dense reconnection layer.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"242871a4700b858afd36979e9ab9015cb84afd2906c9b141e58b88109a83b8f8"},"source":{"id":"2605.15427","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":"b9c77743-e930-473c-a0de-f19e732a2c08","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-19T14:47:46.578931Z","strongest_claim":"When a strong external field (2 T) is applied, we observe a void between the arrays rather than a dense layer, and we hypothesise that the external field is frozen out of the plasma and provides a back-pressure which decelerates the flows.","one_line_summary":"Strong external magnetic fields applied parallel to the reconnecting electric field delay current-sheet formation in pulsed-power-driven reconnection by creating back-pressure that slows plasma inflows.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"The external magnetic field remains frozen into the plasma on the experimental timescale and therefore exerts a sustained back-pressure on the incoming flows (stated in the hypothesis paragraph of the abstract).","pith_extraction_headline":"A strong external magnetic field delays current sheet formation by creating a void between colliding plasma flows instead of a dense reconnection layer."},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2605.15427/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[{"name":"cited_work_retraction","ran_at":"2026-05-19T15:55:04.939915Z","status":"completed","version":"1.0.0","findings_count":0},{"name":"citation_quote_validity","ran_at":"2026-05-19T15:50:38.382495Z","status":"completed","version":"0.1.0","findings_count":0},{"name":"doi_compliance","ran_at":"2026-05-19T15:01:44.008905Z","status":"completed","version":"1.0.0","findings_count":0},{"name":"doi_title_agreement","ran_at":"2026-05-19T15:01:17.679143Z","status":"completed","version":"1.0.0","findings_count":0},{"name":"claim_evidence","ran_at":"2026-05-19T14:21:54.134609Z","status":"completed","version":"1.0.0","findings_count":0},{"name":"ai_meta_artifact","ran_at":"2026-05-19T13:33:22.697871Z","status":"skipped","version":"1.0.0","findings_count":0}],"snapshot_sha256":"8503685848f113c69ef44da505bfa1389e7805cedc613600b50fcc11a45d4868"},"references":{"count":36,"sample":[{"doi":"10.1098/rspa.2016.0479","year":2016,"title":"Perspectives on magnetic reconnection , volume =","work_id":"9fd556e8-7e32-4e22-a10b-22d1ecc8aa1a","ref_index":1,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"10.1103/physrevlett.116.105003","year":2016,"title":"Physical Review Letters , author =","work_id":"19378392-bc02-47e6-b990-0403f2133681","ref_index":2,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":null,"title":"Fiksel, G. and Fox, W. and Bhattacharjee, A. and Barnak, D. 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