Newswise — Physicists from around the world gathered at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) for the 2025 International Workshop on Magnetic Reconnection in Space, Solar, Astrophysical and Laboratory Plasmas. Participants came from countries including Japan, France, Italy, Sweden, Australia, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Austria and South Korea, as well as from U.S. universities and national laboratories, NASA and the Southwest Research Institute, among other institutions, to discuss recent findings involving magnetic reconnection, one of the most common phenomena in the cosmos.
During reconnection, magnetic field lines snap apart and recombine, releasing enormous amounts of energy. Scientists hypothesize that reconnection powers large eruptions of plasma on the sun known as solar flares, as well as the aurora borealis and magnetic disturbances high above the Earth’s atmosphere that can damage satellites and power grids.
Reconnection also occurs within doughnut-shaped fusion facilities known as tokamaks. Furthering our understanding of magnetic reconnection could help us minimize communications network damage against solar outbursts and enhance the stability of fusion facility operations.
From March 10 to March 14, more than 100 scientists attended presentations and gathered for informal discussions on a range of reconnection topics, including turbulence and the precise mechanisms that allow reconnection to proceed from large to small scales, like from the surface of the sun to Earth’s outer atmosphere.
PPPL was an ideal host for this conference because of its long history of reconnection research. The Lab’s Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX) has been operating for nearly 30 years, allowing scientists to study actual instances of reconnection in the laboratory. PPPL has also received multiple grants for reconnection experiments, including several from NASA, and has created novel artificial intelligence tools to aid the study of reconnection by classifying space-based blobs of plasma known as plasmoids.
Participants toured PPPL’s new Facility for Laboratory Reconnection Experiments (FLARE), a one-of-a-kind device designed to aid the study of reconnection under conditions that more accurately match those in outer space. FLARE is a collaborative research facility that allows long-term research partnerships with both institutions and individual scientists. It currently receives funding from DOE and Princeton University.
“I was extremely excited to welcome magnetic reconnection experts from around the world to PPPL for the latest edition of a long-running conference,” said Hantao Ji, a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, a distinguished research fellow at PPPL and a principal investigator of FLARE. “FLARE is about to begin operations, and I can’t wait to see what exciting new physics we are going to discover collaboratively with all of the attendees.”
During the event, scientists recognized the contributions of PPPL Principal Research Physicist Masaaki Yamada, who retired in 2024, and University of Tokyo Professor of Frontier Science Yasushi Ono, who will retire in 2025. Both scientists have spent decades studying plasma and magnetic reconnection. In fact, Yamada was one of the primary researchers driving the creation of FLARE and was the decades-long head of MRX, FLARE’s predecessor. Yamada also helped to organize the first magnetic reconnection conference in 1998.
Scientists gave presentations on topics including the sun’s corona, or hot outer atmosphere; the solar wind, or the flow of hot, charged particles from the sun through the solar system; the magnetosphere, or the magnetic field surrounding Earth; and innovative fusion device concepts involving merging rings of plasma and reconnection-caused heating. The presentations mentioned a range of space-based experiments, including the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission and the Parker Solar Probe, both operated by NASA, as well as the Hinode Solar Optical Telescope, led by the Japan Aerospace ExplorationAgency.
“I thought the conference went wonderfully,” said Jongsoo Yoo, deputy head of the Discovery Plasma Science Department and a PPPL principal research physicist. “Not only did we get more participants than we expected, but we also had a chance to show FLARE to potential users and explain its capabilities. It’s hard to gather 100 reconnection experts in one place, so this was the time to do it!”
“I was thrilled to see so many young scientists from the magnetic reconnection community attending this conference,” said Yamada. “This field has been my home for a long time and has been a great source of scientific satisfaction. I look forward to seeing what the next generation discovers!”
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