Flux ropes and 3D dynamics in the relaxation scaling experiment

Flux ropes form basic building blocks for magnetic dynamics in many plasmas, are macroscopic analogues of magnetic field lines, and are irreducibly three dimensional (3D). We have used the relaxation scaling experiment (RSX) to study flux ropes, and have found many new features involving 3D dynamics, kink instability driven reconnection, nonlinearly stable but kinking flux ropes, and large flows.