Collaborative Research: Novel Plasma Physics of Trapped Antimatter

合作研究：捕获反物质的新型等离子体物理学

• 批准号: 2205620
• 负责人: Timothy Tharp
• 金额: $ 23.34万
• 依托单位: Marquette University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-01 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2205620&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Novel; Plasma; Physics

This award enables an exploration of future experiments for studying asymmetry between matter and antimatter. The prevalence of matter over antimatter is one of the most important unexplained observations in physics. As currently understood, the laws of physics obey symmetry properties that predict equality between the two forms of matter – at odds with our everyday experience as well as detailed astronomical observations. Such an inconsistency suggests that our current understanding of the laws of physics may be incomplete. ALPHA is an interdisciplinary antimatter experiment at CERN that tests this notion by producing antihydrogen and sensitively measuring its properties in comparison with the hydrogen atom. Trapping antimatter to produce antihydrogen is a plasma physics problem, consisting of collecting and manipulating large collections of charged particles using electric and magnetic fields. This project conducted in collaboration between the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor and Marquette University will advance understanding of novel plasma physics processes that occur in these experiments and develop protocols for possible future experiments. The project also supports development of interactive science exhibits for display at the Discovery World Science and Technology Center in Milwaukee, WI and at the Plasma Expo during the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics annual meetings.Trapped antimatter is novel from a plasma physics perspective, as well as a particle physics perspective. These plasmas are so cold, and the magnetic fields of the trap are so strong, that they exist in a state that is not well described by the usual models of plasma physics. Specifically, the low temperature causes the plasma to be strongly coupled, which means that it behaves more like a supercritical fluid or a liquid, than the more common dilute-gas-like behavior. The strong applied magnetic field, in combination with the low density, also causes the plasma to be strongly magnetized. Currently understood methods of plasma theory do not apply in either of these circumstances. The research to be conducted will further develop recent theoretical approaches that extend plasma theory into these domains. The work will apply a newly developed kinetic theory and molecular dynamics simulations to advance understanding of three critical plasma-related processes: electron and positron compression, antiproton cooling, and mixing and recombination of antiprotons and positrons. Molecular dynamics simulations will be used to test the model development. The advanced models will be applied to explore more efficient ways to convert collections of positrons and antiprotons into antihydrogen atoms.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项使人们能够探索未来研究物质和反物质之间不对称性的实验。 物质相对于反物质的普遍性是物理学中最重要的无法解释的观测结果之一。正如目前所理解的，物理学定律遵循对称性，预测两种形式的物质之间的平等-与我们的日常经验以及详细的天文观测不一致。 这种不一致性表明，我们目前对物理定律的理解可能是不完整的。阿尔法是欧洲核子研究中心的一个跨学科的反物质实验，它通过产生反氢并灵敏地测量其与氢原子相比的性质来测试这一概念。捕获反物质以产生反氢是一个等离子体物理问题，包括使用电场和磁场收集和操纵大量带电粒子。该项目在密歇根大学-安阿伯和马奎特大学之间的合作进行，将推进对这些实验中发生的新型等离子体物理过程的理解，并为未来可能的实验制定协议。 该项目还支持在威斯康星州密尔沃基的探索世界科学技术中心和美国物理学会等离子体物理学年会期间的等离子体博览会上展示互动科学展品的发展。从等离子体物理学的角度来看，被困反物质是新颖的，以及粒子物理学的角度来看。这些等离子体是如此的冷，而陷阱的磁场又是如此的强，以至于它们存在于一种无法用等离子体物理学的通常模型很好描述的状态中。具体地说，低温导致等离子体被强耦合，这意味着它的行为更像超临界流体或液体，而不是更常见的稀释气体样行为。强磁场与低密度相结合，也导致等离子体被强烈磁化。目前所理解的等离子体理论方法不适用于这两种情况。即将进行的研究将进一步发展最新的理论方法，将等离子体理论扩展到这些领域。这项工作将应用新开发的动力学理论和分子动力学模拟来推进对三个关键等离子体相关过程的理解：电子和正电子压缩，反质子冷却以及反质子和正电子的混合和重组。分子动力学模拟将用于测试模型的开发。先进的模型将被应用于探索更有效的方法来将正电子和反质子的集合转化为反氢原子。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。