Confinement of relativistic electrons in a magnetic mirror en route to a magnetized relativistic pair plasma

Linden, Jens von der; Fiksel, G.; Peebles, J.; Edwards, Matthew R.; Willingale, L.; Link, A.; Mastrosimone, D.; Chen, Hui

doi:10.1063/5.0057582

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The next generation of ultra-intense lasers may also be able to produce pairs by achieving the Schwinger limit for vacuum breakdown [24][25][26]. Meanwhile, precision magnetic confinement techniques have been developed to trap low-temperature e ± pair plasmas [27][28][29], and relativistic laserproduced plasmas [30][31][32]. However, despite significant efforts, none of these approaches have so far been able to produce the yields and densities of pairs needed to sustain collective modes in the plasma.…”

Section: Mainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laboratory realization of relativistic pair-plasma beams

Arrowsmith,

Simon,

Bilbao

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Relativistic electron-positron (e±)plasmas are ubiquitous in extreme astrophysical environments such as black holes and neutron star magnetospheres, where accretion-powered jets and pulsar winds are expected to be enriched with such pair plasmas. Their behaviour is quite different from typical electron-ion plasmas due to the matter-antimatter symmetry of the charged components and their role in the dynamics of such compact objects is believed to be fundamental. So far, our experimental inability to produce large yields of positrons in quasi-neutral beams has restricted the understanding of electron-positron pair plasmas to simple numerical and analytical studies which are rather limited. We present first experimental results confirming the generation of high-density, quasi-neutral, relativistic electron-positron pair beams using the 440 GeV/c beam at CERN's Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator. The produced pair beams have a volume that fills multiple Debye spheres and are thus able to sustain collective plasma oscillations. Our work opens up the possibility of directly probing the microphysics of pair plasmas beyond quasi-linear evolution into regimes that are challenging to simulate or measure via astronomical observations.

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Section: Mainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laboratory realization of relativistic pair-plasma beams

Arrowsmith,

Simon,

Bilbao

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…2017; von der Linden et al. 2021; Chen & Fiuza 2023). Nevertheless, the MeV particle energies and surplus radiation associated with these techniques are not conducive to observing collective effects over long time scales.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experimental efforts, however, are hampered by the difficulty of amassing positrons (Greaves & Surko 1995;Pedersen et al 2012;Higaki et al 2017). Impressive advances have been made in creating relativistic pair plasmas using powerful pulsed lasers (Chen et al 2009;Sarri et al 2015;Warwick et al 2017;von der Linden et al 2021;Chen & Fiuza 2023). Nevertheless, the MeV particle energies and surplus radiation associated with these techniques are not conducive to observing collective effects over long time scales.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A buffer-gas trap for the NEPOMUC positron beam: optimization studies with electrons

Deller,

Rogge,

Desopo

et al. 2023

J. Plasma Phys.

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Buffer-gas traps (BGTs) use inelastic interactions with nitrogen molecules to capture positrons from a continuous beam. These devices are invaluable for high-resolution studies of matter–antimatter interactions, antihydrogen research and positronium laser spectroscopy. We present a new project with the goal of producing a non-neutral plasma containing ${\sim }10^8$ low-energy positrons by installing a BGT on the NEPOMUC (NEutron induced POsitron source MUniCh) high-intensity positron beam. Details of the BGT are outlined and results are presented from experiments in which an electron beam, with a similar intensity and energy spread to the remoderated NEPOMUC beam, was used to create pulses of non-neutral electron plasma. The device is a vital component of the APEX (A Positron Electron eXperiment) project, which aims to create a low-temperature electron–positron pair plasma.

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“…There are several efforts underway to magnetically confine cold (0.01-10 eV) as well as relativistic electron-positron pair plasmas (Higaki et al 2010;Hicks, Bowman & Godden 2019;Stoneking et al 2020;von der Linden et al 2021a;Peebles et al 2021). The efforts towards creating magnetically confined cold pair plasmas are motivated by the perfect mass symmetry of pairs resulting in drastic changes in the time and length-scales as well as by the anticipated mode behaviour (Stenson et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Annihilation-gamma-based diagnostic techniques for magnetically confined electron–positron pair plasma

von der Linden,

Nißl,

Deller

et al. 2023

J. Plasma Phys.

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Efforts are underway to magnetically confine electron–positron pair plasmas to study their unique behaviour, which is characterized by significant changes in plasma time and length scales, supported waves and unstable modes. However, use of conventional plasma diagnostics presents challenges with these low-density and annihilating matter–antimatter plasmas. To address this problem, we propose to develop techniques based on the distinct emission provided by annihilation. This emission exhibits two spatial correlations: the distance attenuation of isotropic sources and the back-to-back propagation of momentum-preserving 2 $\gamma$ annihilation. We present the results of our analysis of the $\gamma$ emission rate and the spatial profile of the annihilation in a magnetized pair plasma from direct pair collisions, from the formation and decay of positronium as well as from transport processes. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of annihilation-based techniques, we tested them on annular $\gamma$ emission profiles produced by a $\beta ^+$ radioisotope on a rotating turntable. Direct and positronium-mediated annihilation result in overlapping volumetric $\gamma$ sources, and the 2 $\gamma$ emission from these volumetric sources can be tomographically reconstructed from coincident counts in multiple detectors. Transport processes result in localized annihilation where field lines intersect walls, limiters or internal magnets. These localized sources can be identified by the fractional $\gamma$ counts on spatially distributed detectors.

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Confinement of relativistic electrons in a magnetic mirror en route to a magnetized relativistic pair plasma

Cited by 11 publications

References 45 publications

Laboratory realization of relativistic pair-plasma beams

Laboratory realization of relativistic pair-plasma beams

A buffer-gas trap for the NEPOMUC positron beam: optimization studies with electrons

Annihilation-gamma-based diagnostic techniques for magnetically confined electron–positron pair plasma

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