Mass production of Positrons (Anti-matter)

a reply to: mbkennel

Yeah my bad. Ill resend.

Check now

Well, it is not CERN, heck, it is not even a particle accelerator, per se, but will do in a reverse field pinch (teehe!).

The researchers noted that the Stellarator—a fusion device—loses electrons as they drift across the magnetic field (normally electrons travel along magnetic field lines). This drift is driven by electrons colliding with each other. These collisions send the electrons moving perpendicular to both the magnetic field and an electric field that the electrons create.

The researchers arranged a set of electrodes to recreate that electric field. But the electrodes have to provide a very precise profile in relation to the magnetic field lines of the trap. It’s not stated in the article, but I suspect that a lot of time was spent on this problem. Stellarator designers faced a similar problem, so the researchers could probably work with a modified version of the code used to optimize the Stellarator (the research was conducted at the same institution).

The result, though, was spectacular: the researchers were unable to detect any positron loss during the trapping process.

The trap was also pretty awesome. It combines magnetic fields and electric fields to confine the positrons. This allowed the researchers to take advantage of the new electric field technique to controllably load and unload the trap.

The trap holds the positrons for about a second, which is pretty amazing. But the researchers wanted to know why they only got a second. So a second paper was devoted to looking at the positrons once they were inside.

ArsTechnica.com - Technical tour-de-force traps positrons.

Actual papers (shows the energy levels, confinement times), Physical Review Letters (journal.aps.org), Dec. 5., 2018: Lossless Positron Injection into a Magnetic Dipole Trap,

and,

(same source): Confinement of Positrons Exceeding 1 s in a Supported Magnetic Dipole Trap.

Not quiet a linear accelerator to trap matter-antimatter to go off on some 5 year mission to seek out new life and new civilizations but they have a method, proven, peer reviewed, to trap positrons for a second or so!

And from a fusion reactor no less! Now you see why I dedicate myself to that crazy religion!

Plus the Ars article has a good overview of stellar plasma stuffs and why it is a bit different than what we do in a lab.

To overcome this challenge, researchers performed extensive simulations and then verified them experimentally: a tailor-made electric field at the edge of the magnetic trap ensures that the charged particles can drift into the trap across the magnetic field lines. The electric field is then switched off and the particles are trapped in the magnetic field. An opposite example of this effect is seen in fusion research: electric fields, which can form spontaneously in the plasma, cause unwanted drifting of particles out of the confining magnetic cage – a particle loss which fusion researchers prevent by using a variety of countermeasures.

The current experiments used a prototype trap with a simple permanent magnet, which was attached to NEPOMUC [positron source lab]. To generate an electron-positron plasma, however, the APEX group is working on a superconducting dipole that floats in the middle of a vacuum chamber without touching the walls and generates the confining magnetic field.[ex/]
IPPP.mpg.de (English), Dec. 5, 2018 - A cage full of antimatter.

A little more direct report here. We can now see that they ran simulations, created a prototype permanent magnetic trap to demonstrate the simulation, and thus prove it is possible. That was the previous post's announcement: it has been done.

This goes one step further and explains APEX's net step: a superconducting dipole trap!

Now that is going to be awesome!

Maybe get enough particles to do some real, "mad scientist, total destruction of the lab" type experiments!!

ETA: Had this ready for posting when somebody killed our network by applying an update... in the middle of the day! It took them 12 hours to correct. Not bad for a technology company...

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Since I can't edit my post to fix it...

@MOD, feel free to remove post = 24031801

To overcome this challenge, researchers performed extensive simulations and then verified them experimentally: a tailor-made electric field at the edge of the magnetic trap ensures that the charged particles can drift into the trap across the magnetic field lines. The electric field is then switched off and the particles are trapped in the magnetic field. An opposite example of this effect is seen in fusion research: electric fields, which can form spontaneously in the plasma, cause unwanted drifting of particles out of the confining magnetic cage – a particle loss which fusion researchers prevent by using a variety of countermeasures.

The current experiments used a prototype trap with a simple permanent magnet, which was attached to NEPOMUC [positron source lab]. To generate an electron-positron plasma, however, the APEX group is working on a superconducting dipole that floats in the middle of a vacuum chamber without touching the walls and generates the confining magnetic field.

IPPP.mpg.de (English), Dec. 5, 2018 - A cage full of antimatter.

A little more direct report here. We can now see that they ran simulations, created a prototype permanent magnetic trap to demonstrate the simulation, and thus prove it is possible. That was the previous post's announcement: it has been done.

This goes one step further and explains APEX's net step: a superconducting dipole trap!

Now that is going to be awesome!

Maybe get enough particles to do some real, "mad scientist, total destruction of the lab" type experiments!!

ETA: Had this ready for posting when somebody killed our network by applying an update... in the middle of the day! It took them 12 hours to correct. Not bad for a technology company...

ETA: Realized my bbcode error but too late...

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Some of my more interesting recent discoveries. Here are some papers to Google:

Study of Relativistic Electron Beam Propagation in the
Atmosphere-Ionosphere-Magnetosphere

BEAR
(BEAM EXPERIMENTS ABOARD A ROCKET)
PROJECT
FINAL REPORT
VOLUME I: PROJECT SUMMARY

Both are definitely an interesting read. Love how mainstream meterology makes it sounds impossible to predict Sprite formation, but the AFRL seems to have it down pat. Also interesting is that we actually launched a LINAC into space and it still worked just fine after the return trip.

a reply to: Bornsecrets

Positrons if I understand it is the antimatter analog to the electron and is used in p.e.t. scanners to make antimatter you also need neutrons and antiprotons which are the analog to regular protons. I have heard reports that high altitude lightning has made antimatter in tiny amounts don,t know how true it is. But the real trick is storing the antimatter once you create it because even the vary air molecules would cause an explosion so they would have to be stroedin a magnetic field inside of a total vacuum.

a reply to: proteus33

Lightning does indeed create anti-matter from ionized nitrogen in the air. They have found gamma double flash from a positron annihilation during a lightning strike.