Generation of neutral and high-density electron–positron pair plasmas in the laboratory

Sarri, Gianluca; Põder, Kristjan; Cole, J. M.; Schumaker, W.; Piazza, A. Di; Reville, Brian; Dzelzainis, T.; Doria, D.; Gizzi, L. A.; Grittani, G.; Kar, S.; Keitel, Christoph H.; Krushelnick, K.; Kuschel, S.; Mangles, S. P. D.; Najmudin, Z.; Shukla, Nitin; Silva, L. O.; Symes, D. R.; Thomas, Alexander; Vargas, M.; Vieira, Jorge; Zepf, Matthew

doi:10.1038/ncomms7747

Cited by 304 publications

(273 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…A (collisional) plasma will behave similarly in that limit. For a rigorous examination, see Fitzpatrick (2008 As given by Liang et al (2015) and Sarri et al (2015).…”

Section: Plasma Skin Depth and Plasma Frequencymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Debye length and plasma skin depth: two length scales of interest in the creation and diagnosis of laboratory pair plasmas

et al. 2017

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In traditional electron/ion laboratory plasmas, the system size L is much larger than both the plasma skin depth l s and the Debye length λ D . In current and planned efforts to create electron/positron plasmas in the laboratory, this is not necessarily the case. A low-temperature, low-density system may have λ D < L < l s ; a high-density, thermally relativistic system may have l s < L < λ D . Here we consider the question of what plasma physics phenomena are accessible (and/or diagnostically exploitable) in these different regimes and how this depends on magnetization. While particularly relevant to ongoing pair plasma creation experiments, the transition from single-particle behaviour to collective, 'plasma' effects -and how the criterion for that threshold is different for different phenomena -is an important but often neglected topic in electron/ion systems as well.

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“…A (collisional) plasma will behave similarly in that limit. For a rigorous examination, see Fitzpatrick (2008 As given by Liang et al (2015) and Sarri et al (2015).…”

Section: Plasma Skin Depth and Plasma Frequencymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Charge neutrality approached asymptotically, but effectively achieved. Plasma skin depth of the order of or slightly smaller than the beam diameter (l s < d); simulations predict such a system will exhibit some collective behaviour (Wilks et al 2005;Chen et al 2015;Liang et al 2015;Sarri et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Debye length and plasma skin depth: two length scales of interest in the creation and diagnosis of laboratory pair plasmas

et al. 2017

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“…However, unlike e þ -"beams", showers are divergent and suffer from innately exponential energy spectra. Moreover, the positron number in showers which peaks around a few MeV [2,25], undergoes orders-ofmagnitude drop at higher energies. Another work which uses sheath fields driven by kilo-Joule (kJ) lasers in metal targets has obtained quasimonoenergetic 10 MeV positrons [26] although with inherently high temperatures.…”

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confidence: 99%

Quasimonoenergetic laser plasma positron accelerator using particle-shower plasma-wave interactions

Sahai

2018

Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams

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An all-optical centimeter-scale laser-plasma positron accelerator is modeled to produce quasimonoenergetic beams with tunable ultrarelativistic energies. A new principle elucidated here describes the trapping of divergent positrons that are part of a laser-driven electromagnetic particle-shower with a large energy spread and their acceleration into a quasimonoenergetic positron beam in a laser-driven plasma wave. Proof of this principle using analysis and particle-in-cell simulations demonstrates that, under limits defined here, existing lasers can accelerate hundreds of MeV pC quasi-monoenergetic positron bunches. By providing an affordable alternative to kilometer-scale radio-frequency accelerators, this compact positron accelerator opens up new avenues of research. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.21.081301 Monoenergetic positron accelerators intrinsic to positronelectron (e þ − e − ) colliders at energy frontiers [1,2] have been fundamental to many important discoveries [3][4][5][6] that underpin the standard model. Apart from highenergy physics (HEP), monoenergetic e þ -beams of mostly sub-MeV energies are also used in many areas of material science [7,8] Positron accelerators have evidently been scarce due to complexities involved in the production and isolation of elusive particles like positrons [2,16] in addition to the costs associated with the large size of radio-frequency (rf) accelerators [17]. The size of conventional rf accelerators is dictated by the distance over which charged particles gain energy under the action of breakdown limited [18] tens of MVm −1 rf fields sustained using metallic structures that reconfigure transverse electromagnetic waves into modes with axial fields. This limit also complicates efficient positron production [2,13], which has required a multi-GeV e − -beam from a kilometer-scale rf accelerator [17] to interact with a target. Furthermore, the positrons thus produced have to be captured in a flux concentrator, turned around and transported back [19] for reinjection into the same rf accelerator.Advancements in rf technologies have demonstrated 100 MVm −1 -scale fields [20] but explorations beyond the standard model at TeV-scale e þ − e − center-of-mass energies still remain unviable. Moreover, the progress of non-HEP applications of e þ -beams has been largely stagnant.Recent efforts on compact and affordable positron accelerator design based on advanced acceleration techniques [21,22] have unfortunately been unsatisfactory. Production of e þ − e − showers using high-energy electrons from FIG. 1. Schematic of all-optical centimeter-scale schemes of quasimonoenergetic laser-plasma positron accelerator using the interaction of e þ − e − showers with plasma-waves.

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“…The idea of using strong dipole field configuration for magnetic confinement of laboratory plasmas for fusion is proposed theoretically by Hasegawa [1,2] and several experimental devices have also been built since then, such as the Levitated Dipole Experiment (LDX) [3][4][5] at MIT, the Collisionless Terrella Experiment (CTX) [6] at Columbia University and Ring Trap-1 (RT-1) [7,8] at the University of Tokyo. The dipole configuration is also used to confine electron-positron pair plasmas in the laboratory [9]. Typical charged particle trajectories under ideal dipole field have good confinement features.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local gyrokinetic study of electrostatic microinstabilities in dipole plasmas

et al. 2017

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A linear gyrokinetic particle-in-cell scheme, which is valid for arbitrary perpendicular wavelength k ⊥ ρi and includes the parallel dynamic along the field line, is developed to study the local electrostatic drift modes in point and ring dipole plasmas. We find the most unstable mode in this system can be either electron mode or ion mode. The properties and relations of these modes are studied in detail as a function of k ⊥ ρi, the density gradient κn, the temperature gradient κT , electron to ion temperature ratio τ = Te/Ti, and mass ratio mi/me. For conventional weak gradient parameters, the mode is on ground state (with eigenstate number l = 0) and especially k ∼ 0 for small k ⊥ ρi. Thus, bounce averaged dispersion relation is also derived for comparison. For strong gradient and large k ⊥ ρi, most interestingly, higher order eigenstate modes with even (e.g., l = 2, 4) or odd (e.g., l = 1) parity can be most unstable, which is not expected by previous studies. High order eigenstate can also easily be most unstable at weak gradient when τ > 10. This work can be particularly important to understand the turbulent transport in laboratory and space magnetosphere.

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Generation of neutral and high-density electron–positron pair plasmas in the laboratory

Cited by 304 publications

References 47 publications

Debye length and plasma skin depth: two length scales of interest in the creation and diagnosis of laboratory pair plasmas

Debye length and plasma skin depth: two length scales of interest in the creation and diagnosis of laboratory pair plasmas

Quasimonoenergetic laser plasma positron accelerator using particle-shower plasma-wave interactions

Local gyrokinetic study of electrostatic microinstabilities in dipole plasmas

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