High fidelity kinetic modeling of magnetic reconnection in laboratory plasmas*

Over the past decade, a great deal of progress has been made towards understanding the fast timescales of magnetic reconnection found in space and in laboratory experiments. However, a number of key questions remain, including how reconnection transitions from large-scale collisional current sheets down the kinetic scales in solar flares, and the role of pressure anisotropy in the formation of extended electron current layers in the magnetosphere. Two new laboratory experiments have been built to address these respective questions – FLARE at Princeton University and TREX at the University of Wisconsin. To guide and interpret these new experiments, we have implemented a capability in the VPIC particle-in-cell code to model these devices in realistic cylindrical geometries, including binary collisions and the coupling to the drive coils. We present initial results from the modeling of these experimental set-ups, along with large-scale simulations of the collisional-to-kinetic transition in 3D performed on Cori at NERSC. This transition differs from 2D due to the interaction of oblique flux-ropes that form due to the semi-collisional plasmoid instability.