Laboratory studies of neutral and collimated electron-positron beams

中性和准直正负电子束的实验室研究

• 批准号: EP/N027175/1
• 负责人: Gianluca Sarri
• 金额: $ 52.8万
• 依托单位: Queen's University Belfast
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FN027175%2F1
• 关键词: Laboratory; studies; neutral; collimated; electron

Electron-positron pair plasmas (EPPs) represent a unique state of matter, whereby an intrinsic and complete symmetry exists between the negatively charged (matter) and positively charged (anti-matter) particles. EPPs are emitted, in the form of ultra-relativistic winds or collimated jets, by some of the most energetic or powerful objects in the Universe, such as black-holes, pulsars, and quasars. They are frequently associated with violent emission of gamma-rays in the form of short-lived (milliseconds up to a few minutes) bursts, which are amongst the most luminous events ever observed in the Universe. These systems represent a unique astrophysical laboratory, since their immense distance from Earth (some exceeding a billion light years) provides invaluable insight into the Universe at its early stage and allow testing physical models at their very limits. However, the dynamics of EPPs in the intergalactic medium and, crucially, their radiative properties, are still subject of fervent debate in the community, chiefly due to the fact that our knowledge of them is intrinsically restricted to astrophysical observation and numerical modelling. Precious help would naturally arise from dedicated laboratory experiments, in which the microphysics can be accessed in a reproducible and controllable manner. However, despite dedicated efforts at several leading research institutes worldwide, the generation of a neutral EPP in the laboratory has until recently remained elusive. Recently, our research group has succeeded in generating a neutral EPP in a fully optical experimental setup, placing our group at the forefront of this research branch. This is an absolute first in the area, despite continued dedicated efforts from other research institutes worldwide. Besides the academic interest, this work has proven to attract significant media attention, as demonstrated by dedicated articles in the New Scientist, CERN Courier, Physics World, and The Conversation, among others. Our proposed research project is then focused on consolidating our world-leading role in this emerging branch of experimental physics by expanding our experimental investigations of this fascinating state of matter. In particular, we aim at generating, for the first time, a collimated and neutral EPP and study its interaction with a background ionised medium over cm scales. We aim at spatially and temporally characterising instabilities arising during the EPP propagation, from its early stages up to saturation. The extraction of detailed experimental data on the plasma dynamics and subsequent field generation will provide the first laboratory platform for the small-scale study of astrophysical jets and GRB emission, against which numerical models used to interpret astrophysical observations can be compared and refined.

电子-正电子对等离子体（EPPs）代表了物质的一种独特状态，在带负电的（物质）和带正电的（反物质）粒子之间存在内在的完全对称性。EPP是由宇宙中一些最有能量或最强大的物体（例如黑洞、脉冲星和类星体）以超相对论风或准直喷流的形式发射的。它们经常与伽马射线以短寿命（毫秒到几分钟）爆发的形式猛烈发射有关，这是宇宙中观测到的最明亮的事件之一。这些系统代表了一个独特的天体物理实验室，因为它们与地球的巨大距离（有些超过10亿光年）提供了对宇宙早期阶段的宝贵见解，并允许在其极限下测试物理模型。 然而，在星系际介质中的EPPs的动态，至关重要的是，他们的辐射特性，仍然是激烈的辩论在社会上的主题，主要是由于这样一个事实，即我们的知识，他们本质上是有限的天体物理观测和数值模拟。宝贵的帮助自然会来自专门的实验室实验，在这些实验中，微观物理学可以以可再现和可控的方式进行访问。然而，尽管全球几个领先的研究机构做出了不懈的努力，但直到最近，在实验室中产生中性EPP仍然是难以捉摸的。 最近，我们的研究小组已经成功地产生了一个中性的EPP在全光学实验装置，把我们的小组在这个研究的最前沿分支。这在该领域绝对是第一次，尽管世界各地的其他研究机构不断努力。除了学术兴趣，这项工作已被证明吸引了大量的媒体关注，如《新科学家》、《欧洲核子研究中心》、《物理世界》和《对话》等杂志上的专门文章所证明的那样。 我们提出的研究项目，然后集中在巩固我们的世界领先的作用，在这个新兴的实验物理学分支，通过扩大我们的实验调查这个迷人的物质状态。特别是，我们的目标是产生，第一次，准直和中性EPP和研究其相互作用与背景电离介质超过厘米尺度。我们的目标是在空间和时间上表征EPP传播过程中产生的不稳定性，从其早期阶段到饱和。提取详细的实验数据等离子体动力学和随后的字段生成将提供第一个实验室平台的小规模研究天体物理喷流和伽玛射线暴的排放，对用于解释天体物理观测的数值模型可以进行比较和完善。

项目成果

Laser-Wakefield Electron Beams as Drivers of High-Quality Positron Beams and Inverse-Compton-Scattered Photon Beams

• DOI: 10.3389/fphy.2019.00049
• 发表时间: 2019-04
• 期刊: Frontiers in Physics
• 影响因子: 3.1
• 作者: A. Alejo;G. M. Samarin;J. Warwick;G. Sarri

Ultrashort, MeV-scale laser-plasma positron source for positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy

用于正电子湮没寿命光谱的超短兆电子伏级激光等离子体正电子源

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevaccelbeams.24.073402
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Physical Review Accelerators and Beams
• 影响因子: 1.7
• 作者: Audet T

Non-invasive characterisation of a laser-driven positron beam

• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6587/ab7e81
• 发表时间: 2020-02
• 期刊: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
• 影响因子: 2.2
• 作者: Aaron Alejo;G. M. Samarin;Richard Warwick;Connor McCluskey;G. Cantono;T. Ceccotti;S. D. Dufrénoy;Pascal Monot;G. Sarri

Conceptual design report for the LUXE experiment

• DOI: 10.1140/epjs/s11734-021-00249-z
• 发表时间: 2021-02
• 期刊: The European Physical Journal Special Topics
• 作者: H. Abramowicz;U. Acosta;M. Altarelli;R. Assmann;Z. Bai;T. Behnke;Y. Benhammou;T. Blackburn