Generation of neutral and high-density electron-positron pair plasmas in the laboratory
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Electron-positron pair plasmas represent a unique state of matter, whereby there exists an intrinsic and complete symmetry between negatively charged (matter) and positively charged (antimatter) particles. These plasmas play a fundamental role in the dynamics of ultra-massive astrophysical objects and are believed to be associated with the emission of ultra-bright gamma-ray bursts. Despite extensive theoretical modelling, our knowledge of this state of matter is still speculative, owing to the extreme difficulty in recreating neutral matter-antimatter plasmas in the laboratory. Here we show that, by using a compact laser-driven setup, ion-free electron-positron plasmas with unique characteristics can be produced. Their charge neutrality (same amount of matter and antimatter), high-density and small divergence finally open up the possibility of studying electron-positron plasmas in controlled laboratory experiments.
Date Issued
2015-04-23
Date Acceptance
2015-02-24
Citation
Nature Communications, 2015, 6 (4)
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
6
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© 2015 Sarri, G. et al. Generation of neutral and high-density electron–positron pair plasmas in the laboratory. Nat. Commun. 6:6747 doi: 10.1038/ncomms7747 (2015). Open access articles are published under a CC BY license (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License).
Identifier
PII: ncomms7747
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 6747