Anomalous resistivity generated by lower hybrid drift waves in the current sheet of a laboratory plasma in the presence of a guide field*

The lower hybrid drift wave (LHDW) has been a candidate for anomalous resistivity in the current sheet of magnetic reconnection. Although LHDW has been observed in both laboratory ([e.g.] Carter et al. 2002) and space ([e.g.] Norgren et al. 2012), its role in fast reconnection has not been verified. In the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX), the effect of LHDW on anomalous resistivity is addressed by measuring fluctuations of the density and electric field with a four-tip Langmuir probe. Laboratory measurements indicate that LHDW is not stabilized near the X-line with a high guide field, generating anomalous resistivity there. The wave number vector determined by the hodogram technique shows that LHDW propagates mostly perpendicular to the magnetic field. The wave frequency is near or below the local lower hybrid frequency (f_LH). This wave propagates mostly perpendicular to the background magnetic field, which is different from the electromagnetic fluctuations that have been recently reported as a whistler mode [Stechow et al. 2018].