Autoresonant excitation of antiproton plasmas

We demonstrate controllable excitation of the center-of-mass longitudinal motion of a thermal antiproton plasma using a swept-frequency autoresonant drive. When the plasma is cold, dense, and highly collective in nature, we observe that the entire system behaves as a single-particle nonlinear oscillator, as predicted by a recent theory. In contrast, only a fraction of the antiprotons in a warm plasma can be similarly excited. Antihydrogen was produced and trapped by using this technique to drive antiprotons into a positron plasma, thereby initiating atomic recombination.     

Self-consistent simulation of cyclotron autoresonance maseramplifiers

A self-consistent, one-dimensional model of the cyclotron autoresonance maser (CARM) amplifier is developed, and numerical simulations based on this model are described. Detailed study results of the CARM gain and efficiency for a wide range of initial energy and velocity spreads are presented. The interaction efficiency is found to be substantially increased when the axial magnetic field is tapered. Efficiencies of greater than 41% are obtained for a 140-GHz CARM amplifier with a tapered axial magnetic field and a 700-kV 4.5-A electron beam with parallel velocity spreads of less than 1%. A discussion of the nonlinear bandwidth and interaction sensitivity to axial-field inhomogeneities is presented     

Reaching the nonlinear regime of Raman amplification of ultrashort laser pulses

The intensity of a subpicosecond laser pulse was amplified by a factor of up to 1000 using the Raman backscatter interaction in a 2 mm long gas jet plasma. The process of Raman amplification reached the nonlinear regime, with the intensity of the amplified pulse exceeding that of the pump pulse by more than an order of magnitude. Features unique to the nonlinear regime such as gain saturation, bandwidth broadening, and pulse shortening were observed. Simulation and theory are in qualitative agreement with the measurements.     

Nonlinear theory of nonparaxial laser pulse propagation in plasma channels

Nonparaxial propagation of ultrashort, high-power laser pulses in plasma channels is examined. In the adiabatic limit, pulse energy conservation, nonlinear group velocity, damped betatron oscillations, self-steepening, self-phase modulation, and shock formation are analyzed. In the nonadiabatic limit, the coupling of forward Raman scattering (FRS) and the self-modulation instability (SMI) is analyzed and growth rates are derived, including regimes of reduced growth. The SMI is found to dominate FRS in most regimes of interest.     

Beam envelope equations for cooling of muons in solenoid fields

Muon cooling is a critical component of the proposed muon collider and neutrino factory. Previous studies of cooling channels have tracked single muons through the channel, which requires many particles for good statistics and does not lend itself to an understanding of channel dynamics. In this paper, a system of moment equations are derived which captures the major aspects of cooling: interactions with material and acceleration by radio frequency (rf) cavities. A general analysis of solenoid lattice types compares well with prior simulations and indicates new directions for study.     

Centrifugal separation and equilibration dynamics in an electron-antiproton plasma

Charges in cold, multiple-species, non-neutral plasmas separate radially by mass, forming centrifugally separated states. Here, we report the first detailed measurements of such states in an electron-antiproton plasma, and the first observations of the separation dynamics in any centrifugally separated system. While the observed equilibrium states are expected and in agreement with theory, the equilibration time is approximately constant over a wide range of parameters, a surprising and as yet unexplained result. Electron-antiproton plasmas play a crucial role in antihydrogen trapping experiments.     

Towards antihydrogen confinement with the ALPHA antihydrogen trap

ALPHA is an international project that has recently begun experimentation at CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator (AD) facility. The primary goal of ALPHA is stable trapping of cold antihydrogen atoms with the ultimate goal of precise spectroscopic comparisons with hydrogen. We discuss the status of the ALPHA project and the prospects for antihydrogen trapping.