Confinement of relativistic electrons in a magnetic mirror en route to a magnetized relativistic pair plasma

Creating a magnetized relativistic pair plasma in the laboratory would enable the exploration of unique plasma physics relevant to some of the most energetic events in the universe. As a step toward a laboratory pair plasma, we have demonstrated an effective confinement of multi- MeV electrons insid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics of plasmas 2021-09, Vol.28 (9)
Main Authors: von der Linden, J., Fiksel, G., Peebles, J., Edwards, M. R., Willingale, L., Link, A., Mastrosimone, D., Chen, Hui
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Confinement
Electron-positron pairs
Electrons
Laboratories
Lorentz factor
Magnetic mirrors
Plasma
Plasma physics
Relativistic effects
Spectrometers
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Summary:Creating a magnetized relativistic pair plasma in the laboratory would enable the exploration of unique plasma physics relevant to some of the most energetic events in the universe. As a step toward a laboratory pair plasma, we have demonstrated an effective confinement of multi- MeV electrons inside a pulsed-power-driven 13 T magnetic mirror field with a mirror ratio of 2.6. The confinement is diagnosed by measuring the axial and radial losses with magnetic spectrometers. The loss spectra are consistent with ≤ 2.5 MeV electrons confined in the mirror for ∼ 1 ns. With a source of 1012 electron-positron pairs at comparable energies, this magnetic mirror would confine a relativistic pair plasma with Lorentz factor γ ∼ 6 and magnetization σ ∼ 40.
ISSN:1070-664X
1089-7674
DOI:10.1063/5.0057582