New Plasma Tools for Physics with Low-energy Antimatter

该奖项是为了响应提交给NSF-DoE等离子体科学与工程合作伙伴关系的提案，并根据NSF 09-596进行审查。该奖项提供资金，以支持本科生参与整体研究工作，这是由能源部奖号DE-FG 02 - 10 ER 55080单独资助。1冷反物质在一系列应用中很重要。该项目将为反物质研究开发新的物理工具。 正电子的回旋冷却已被证明是一种有效和有用的工具。 将探讨这种技术的局限性和提高冷却速率的方法。 旋转壁技术，即旋转电场被用来压缩等离子体径向向内穿过磁场，已被证明是一个非常有用的方式来实现高等离子体密度和长约束时间。将进行研究以找到压缩等离子体和形成冷高密度态的改进方法。 此外，将开发一种方法来形成专门定制的（例如，冷的，明亮的）正电子束从捕获的等离子体，包括光束提取的磁场的彭宁-马尔姆伯格陷阱。本科生的参与，使这个奖项，增加了更广泛的教育影响，通过学生的早期培训，通过介绍他们的科学研究作为一个可能的职业道路。

This award is made in response to a proposal submitted to and reviewed under the NSF-DoE Partnership in Plasma Science and Engineering joint solicitation, NSF 09-596. The award provides funds to support undergraduate participation in the overall research effort, which is being funded separately by the DoE Award No. DE-FG02-10ER55080.1Cold antimatter is important in a range of applications. This project will develop new physics tools for antimatter research. Cyclotron cooling of positrons has proven to be an effective and useful tool. The limits of this technique and methods to improve cooling rates will be explored. The rotating wall technique, whereby rotating electric fields are used to compress plasmas radially inward across the magnetic field, has proven to be an exceedingly useful way to achieve high plasma densities and long confinement times. Research will be conducted to find improved ways to compress plasmas and to form cold high-density states. Additionally, a method will be developed to form specially tailored (e.g., cold, bright) positron beams from trapped plasmas, including beams extracted from the magnetic field of the Penning-Malmberg trap. The undergraduate participation, enabled by this award, adds a broader educational impact through the early-year training of students by introducing them to scientific research as a possible career path.