 For this purpose the group has a small tokamak 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, the aurora borealis, magnetic confinement fusion, and magnetohydrodynamic theory in general.