Laboratory realization of relativistic pair-plasma beams

Abstract

Relativistic electron-positron 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.

arXiv comment14 pages, 8 figures

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Attosecond gamma-ray flashes and electron-positron pairs in dyadic laser interaction with micro-wire
• Effect of interparticle fields and radiation reaction on beam dynamics
• Testing strong-field QED with the avalanche precursor
• Suppression of pair beam instabilities in a laboratory analogue of blazar pair cascades
• Radiative cooling induced coherent maser emission in relativistic plasmas
• Simulations of Astrophysically Relevant Pair Beam Instabilities in a Laboratory Context
• Broadband coherent XUV light from $e^{-}/e^{+}$ microbunching in an intense laser pulse
• Whistler-Alfvén turbulence in a non-neutral ultrarelativistic pair plasma