Collaborative Research: Novel Plasma Physics of Trapped Antimatter

合作研究：捕获反物质的新型等离子体物理学

• 批准号: 2205620
• 负责人: Timothy Tharp
• 金额: $ 23.34万
• 依托单位: Marquette University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-01 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2205620&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Novel; Plasma; Physics

This award enables an exploration of future experiments for studying asymmetry between matter and antimatter. The prevalence of matter over antimatter is one of the most important unexplained observations in physics. As currently understood, the laws of physics obey symmetry properties that predict equality between the two forms of matter – at odds with our everyday experience as well as detailed astronomical observations. Such an inconsistency suggests that our current understanding of the laws of physics may be incomplete. ALPHA is an interdisciplinary antimatter experiment at CERN that tests this notion by producing antihydrogen and sensitively measuring its properties in comparison with the hydrogen atom. Trapping antimatter to produce antihydrogen is a plasma physics problem, consisting of collecting and manipulating large collections of charged particles using electric and magnetic fields. This project conducted in collaboration between the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor and Marquette University will advance understanding of novel plasma physics processes that occur in these experiments and develop protocols for possible future experiments. The project also supports development of interactive science exhibits for display at the Discovery World Science and Technology Center in Milwaukee, WI and at the Plasma Expo during the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics annual meetings.Trapped antimatter is novel from a plasma physics perspective, as well as a particle physics perspective. These plasmas are so cold, and the magnetic fields of the trap are so strong, that they exist in a state that is not well described by the usual models of plasma physics. Specifically, the low temperature causes the plasma to be strongly coupled, which means that it behaves more like a supercritical fluid or a liquid, than the more common dilute-gas-like behavior. The strong applied magnetic field, in combination with the low density, also causes the plasma to be strongly magnetized. Currently understood methods of plasma theory do not apply in either of these circumstances. The research to be conducted will further develop recent theoretical approaches that extend plasma theory into these domains. The work will apply a newly developed kinetic theory and molecular dynamics simulations to advance understanding of three critical plasma-related processes: electron and positron compression, antiproton cooling, and mixing and recombination of antiprotons and positrons. Molecular dynamics simulations will be used to test the model development. The advanced models will be applied to explore more efficient ways to convert collections of positrons and antiprotons into antihydrogen atoms.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.

该奖项可以探索未来的实验，以研究物质和反物质之间的不对称性。物质在反物质上的普遍性是物理学中最重要的意外观察之一。据目前了解，物理定律遵守了两种形式的物质之间平等的对称性 - 与我们每天的经验以及详细的天文观察不符。这样的不一致表明，我们目前对物理定律的理解可能是不完整的。 Alpha是CERN的跨学科反物质实验，它通过与氢原子相比测量其特性来测试该概念。捕获抗杀菌剂产生抗氢化是一个血浆物理问题，包括使用电场和磁场收集和操纵大量的带电颗粒。该项目是在密歇根大学 - 安阿伯大学和马奎特大学之间合作进行的，将提高对这些实验中发生的新型等离子物理过程的了解，并为未来的实验开发协议。该项目还支持开发在威斯康星州密尔沃基市发现世界科学技术中心的交互式科学展览，并在美国物理学会年度会议上的美国物理学会分部期间的等离子体博览会上展示。被困的反反感是从血浆物理学的角度出发的，以及粒子物理学的角度。这些等离子体是如此冷，并且陷阱的磁场是如此之强，以至于它们处于血浆物理的通常模型不太描述的状态。具体而言，低温会导致血浆强烈耦合，这意味着它的行为更像是一种超临界流体或液体，而不是更常见的液体，而不是更常见的性能稀疏类似的稀疏类。强施加的磁场与低密度结合使用，还导致血浆具有强磁性。当前了解等离子体理论的方法在这两种情况下均不适用。要进行的研究将进一步开发出将血浆理论扩展到这些领域的最新理论方法。这项工作将采用新开发的动力学理论和分子动力学模拟来提高对三个关键等离子体相关过程的理解：电子和阳性压缩，抗蛋白质冷却，以及抗蛋白酶和阳性的混合和重组。分子动力学模拟将用于测试模型开发。高级模型将用于探索更有效的方法，将阳性和抗抗原子的集合转化为抗氢原子。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估标准来评估值得支持。