RUI: Approach to Thermal Equilibrium for Electron Plasma in Non-Uniform Magnetic Field Traps

这个项目试图探索如何用不同的磁瓶捕获大量电子集合。这一结果将对扩大我们对等离子体陷阱对称性的作用的理解具有重要意义，并将有助于我们制造物质-反物质等离子体，这是一种存在于中子星周围、存在于早期宇宙中的独特等离子体。该项目还将通过让本科生参与到这一努力中来整合研究和教育。禁闭在均匀磁场中的非中性等离子体可以达到热平衡，并被无限限制。这种热平衡态是根据系统的对称性，即正则角动量守恒来理解的。目前还不清楚在更复杂的磁几何结构中是否存在这样的状态；现有的理论表明，在环形磁场中不存在这种状态，但在偶极磁场中可能存在这种状态。该项目旨在测试这些理论，并开发一种合适的电子等离子体靶标，用于在悬浮偶极场中注入正电子和创建正电子-电子等离子体。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project seeks to explore how large collections of electrons can be trapped with different magnetic bottles. The results will be important for extending our understanding of the role of the symmetry of traps for plasmas and will help us make matter-antimatter plasmas, a unique kind of plasma that exists around neutron stars and that existed in the early universe. The project will also integrate research and education by engaging undergraduate students in the effort. Non-neutral plasmas confined in uniform magnetic field traps can come to thermal equilibrium and be confined indefinitely. Such thermal equilibrium states are understood in terms of symmetry of the system, namely the conservation of canonical angular momentum. It is not clear whether such states exist for more complicated magnetic geometries; existing theory suggests they do not exist in a toroidal magnetic field, but that they may exist for a dipole magnetic field. This project seeks to test these theories and to develop a suitable electron plasma target for injection of positrons and creation of a positron-electron plasma in a levitated dipole field.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.