The Madison plasma dynamo experiment (MPDX) is a novel, versatile, basic plasma research device designed to investigate flow driven magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities and other high-$beta$ phenomena with astrophysically relevant parameters. A 3
m diameter vacuum vessel is lined with 36 rings of alternately oriented 4000 G samarium cobalt magnets which create an axisymmetric multicusp that contains $sim$14 m$^{3}$ of nearly magnetic field free plasma that is well confined and highly ionized $(>50%)$. At present, 8 lanthanum hexaboride (LaB$_6$) cathodes and 10 molybdenum anodes are inserted into the vessel and biased up to 500 V, drawing 40 A each cathode, ionizing a low pressure Ar or He fill gas and heating it. Up to 100 kW of electron cyclotron heating (ECH) power is planned for additional electron heating. The LaB$_6$ cathodes are positioned in the magnetized edge to drive toroidal rotation through ${bf J}times{bf B}$ torques that propagate into the unmagnetized core plasma. Dynamo studies on MPDX require a high magnetic Reynolds number $Rm > 1000$, and an adjustable fluid Reynolds number $10< Re <1000$, in the regime where the kinetic energy of the flow exceeds the magnetic energy ($M_A^2=($v$/$v$_A)^2 > 1$). Initial results from MPDX are presented along with a 0-dimensional power and particle balance model to predict the viscosity and resistivity to achieve dynamo action.
A new concept for spinning unmagnetized plasma is demonstrated experimentally. Plasma is confined by an axisymmetric multi-cusp magnetic field and biased cathodes are used to drive currents and impart a torque in the magnetized edge. Measurements sho
w that flow viscously couples momentum from the magnetized edge (where the plasma viscosity is small) into the unmagnetized core (where the viscosity is large) and that the core rotates as a solid body. To be effective, collisional viscosity must overcome the ion-neutral drag due to charge exchange collisions.
We study an evolving bipolar active region that exhibits flux cancellation at the internal polarity inversion line, the formation of a soft X-ray sigmoid along the inversion line and a coronal mass ejection. The evolution of the photospheric magnetic
field is described and used to estimate how much flux is reconnected into the flux rope. About one third of the active region flux cancels at the internal polarity inversion line in the 2.5~days leading up to the eruption. In this period, the coronal structure evolves from a weakly to a highly sheared arcade and then to a sigmoid that crosses the inversion line in the inverse direction. These properties suggest that a flux rope has formed prior to the eruption. The amount of cancellation implies that up to 60% of the active region flux could be in the body of the flux rope. We point out that only part of the cancellation contributes to the flux in the rope if the arcade is only weakly sheared, as in the first part of the evolution. This reduces the estimated flux in the rope to $sim!30%$ or less of the active region flux. We suggest that the remaining discrepancy between our estimate and the limiting value of $sim!10%$ of the active region flux, obtained previously by the flux rope insertion method, results from the incomplete coherence of the flux rope, due to nonuniform cancellation along the polarity inversion line. A hot linear feature is observed in the active region which rises as part of the eruption and then likely traces out field lines close to the axis of the flux rope. The flux cancellation and changing magnetic connections at one end of this feature suggest that the flux rope reaches coherence by reconnection shortly before and early in the impulsive phase of the associated flare. The sigmoid is destroyed in the eruption but reforms within a few hours after a moderate amount of further cancellation has occurred.
