- Versatile Toroidal Facility
The Versatile Toroidal Facility (VTF) is a research group within the Physics Research Division of the
MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology . The VTF is a laboratory focused on studying the phenomenon ofmagnetic reconnection . For this purpose the group has a smalltokamak designed to observe rarefied plasmas with probes. These probes measure electric and magnetic field behavior as well as various plasma characteristics in order to better understand the poorly understood processes involved in magnetic reconnection.The VTF is a fundamental physics research group, and its research has wide-ranging and immediate impact on our understanding of such plasma-related subjects as
solar flares , theaurora borealis ,magnetic confinement fusion , andmagnetohydrodynamic theory in general. The VTF is led by Dr. Miklos Porkolab and Dr. Jan Egedal, both MIT faculty.External links
* [http://www.psfc.mit.edu/ PSFC homepage]
* [http://www.psfc.mit.edu/research/physics_research/vtf/index.html VTF homepage]
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