Speaker
Description
Our collaboration is pursing the creation and study of low-energy magnetized electron-positron plasmas. Such “pair plasmas” are predicted, in certain regimes, to be free of the ubiquitous instabilities that plague magnetized electron-ion plasmas. One of the promising magnetic geometries for confining both non-neutral combinations of electrons and positrons (including pure electron or pure positron plasmas), as well as quasi-neutral plasmas, is the magnetic dipole. We performed experiments with combinations of electrons and positrons in traps using supported permanent magnets and have, recently, conducted pure electron plasma experiments in a levitating superconducting dipole trap. These experiments are diagnosed with a combination of capacitive wall probes (for non-neutral plasmas) and annihilation gamma detectors (when positron pulses are used). We will report on these experiments as well as our plans for combining positrons and electrons in the levitating trap.
