Electron-positron plasmas as an “in-silico probe” for fundamental plasma physics

Abstract

Positrons are routinely used for probing structural properties of matter, but are also a subject of interest in themselves. An electron-positron plasma is the most fundamental sustained macroscopic matter-antimatter system achievable in a laboratory and may be effectively confined by magnetic fields. Such a magnetized electron-positron plasma would allow to study fundamental plasma physics processes and their manifestation in mass-symmetric pair plasmas. Some particular models for drift instabilities and turbulence in magnetized electron-positron plasmas, which may impact on transport losses and confinement of planned experiments, are reviewed. We further discuss how studying electron-positron plasmas by experiment, theory and (“in silico”) simulation can facilitate validation of general fundamental plasma physics principles and models.