Laboratory realization of relativistic pair-plasma beams

Arrowsmith, C. D. and Simon, P. and Bilbao, P. J. and Bott, A. F. A. and Burger, S. and Chen, H. and Cruz, F. D. and Davenne, T. and Efthymiopoulos, I. and Froula, D. H. and Goillot, A. and Gudmundsson, J. T. and Haberberger, D. and Halliday, J. W. D. and Hodge, T. and Huffman, B. T. and Iaquinta, S. and Miniati, F. and Reville, B. and Sarkar, S. and Schekochihin, A. A. and Silva, L. O. and Simpson, R. and Stergiou, V. and Trines, R. M. G. M. and Vieu, T. and Charitonidis, N. and Bingham, R. and Gregori, G. (2024) Laboratory realization of relativistic pair-plasma beams. Nature Communications, 15 (1). 5029. ISSN 2041-1723 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49346-2)

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Abstract

Relativistic electron-positron plasmas are ubiquitous in extreme astrophysical environments such as black-hole and neutron-star magnetospheres, where accretion-powered jets and pulsar winds are expected to be enriched with electron-positron pairs. Their role in the dynamics of such environments is in many cases believed to be fundamental, but their behavior differs significantly from typical electron-ion plasmas due to the matter-antimatter symmetry of the charged components. 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 the 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. Monte Carlo simulations agree well with the experimental data and show that the characteristic scales necessary for collective plasma behavior, such as the Debye length and the collisionless skin depth, are exceeded by the measured size of the produced pair beams. 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.

ORCID iDs

Arrowsmith, C. D., Simon, P., Bilbao, P. J., Bott, A. F. A., Burger, S., Chen, H., Cruz, F. D., Davenne, T., Efthymiopoulos, I., Froula, D. H., Goillot, A., Gudmundsson, J. T., Haberberger, D., Halliday, J. W. D., Hodge, T., Huffman, B. T., Iaquinta, S., Miniati, F., Reville, B., Sarkar, S., Schekochihin, A. A., Silva, L. O., Simpson, R., Stergiou, V., Trines, R. M. G. M., Vieu, T., Charitonidis, N., Bingham, R. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9843-7635 and Gregori, G.;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)