Charge-neutral, GeV-scale electron-positron pair beams produced using bremsstrahlung gamma rays

Matter-antimatter plasmas, such as electron-positron pair plasmas, are frequently observed in various astrophysical phenomena. In laboratory settings, electron-positron pairs have often been generated using high-Z converters irradiated by either direct laser pulses or laser-driven electron beams. He...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications physics 2024-01, Vol.7 (1), p.44-10, Article 44
Main Authors: Noh, Youhwan, Song, Jaehyun, Mirzaie, Mohammad, Hojbota, Calin Ioan, Kim, Hyeong-il, Lee, Seongmin, Won, Junho, Song, Hoon, Song, Chiwan, Ryu, Chang-Mo, Nam, Chang Hee, Bang, Woosuk
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/766/1960/1134
639/766/1960/1135
639/766/34/4125
Antimatter
Bremsstrahlung
Charged particles
Electron beams
Electron-positron pairs
Energy spectra
Gamma rays
Kinetic energy
Lasers
Monte Carlo simulation
Pair production
Particle beams
Particle physics
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Plasmas (physics)
Positron beams
Quarks
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Summary:Matter-antimatter plasmas, such as electron-positron pair plasmas, are frequently observed in various astrophysical phenomena. In laboratory settings, electron-positron pairs have often been generated using high-Z converters irradiated by either direct laser pulses or laser-driven electron beams. Here we generate charge-neutral electron-positron beams with energies in the GeV range, utilizing bremsstrahlung gamma rays. Specifically, intense high-energy gamma rays produced electron-positron pair particles in a lead converter via the Bethe-Heitler process. The produced pair beams exhibited neutrality across all converter thicknesses throughout the energy spectrum spanning from 10 MeV to 1.8 GeV. Pairs with energies surpassing 1 GeV constituted up to 26% of the total kinetic energy within the spectrum. The experimental results were in good agreement with our Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations. These GeV-scale neutral pair particle beams have potential applications for understanding energetic astrophysical phenomena and high-energy particle physics. When an energetic charged particle or photon is incident on a material, matter-antimatter pairs, such as electron-positron pairs, can be created. Here, the authors successfully generate charge-neutral GeV electron-positron beams using a multi-petawatt laser via pair production from the bremsstrahlung gamma rays.
ISSN:2399-3650
2399-3650
DOI:10.1038/s42005-024-01527-7