Suppression of pair beam instabilities in a laboratory analogue of blazar pair cascades
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The generation of dense electron–positron pair beams in the laboratory can enable direct tests of theoretical models of γ -ray bursts and active galactic nuclei. We have successfully achieved this using ultrarelativistic protons accelerated by the Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN. In the first application of this experimental platform, the stability of the pair beam is studied as it propagates through a meter-length plasma, analogous to TeV γ -ray-induced pair cascades in the intergalactic medium. It has been argued that pair beam instabilities disrupt the cascade, thus accounting for the observed lack of reprocessed GeV emission from TeV blazars. If true, this would remove the need for a moderate strength intergalactic magnetic field to explain the observations. We find that the pair beam instability is suppressed if the beam is not perfectly collimated or monochromatic, hence the lower limit to the intergalactic magnetic field inferred from γ -ray observations of blazars is robust.
Authors: Charles D. Arrowsmith, Francesco Miniati, Pablo J. Bilbao, Pascal Simon, Archie F. A. Bott, Stephane Burger, Hui Chen, Filipe D. Cruz, Tristan Davenne, Anthony Dyson, Ilias Efthymiopoulos, Dustin H. Froula, Alice Goillot, Jon T. Gudmundsson, Dan Haberberger, Jack W. D. Halliday, Tom Hodge, Brian T. Huffman, Sam Iaquinta, G. Marshall, Brian Reville, Subir Sarkar, Alexander A. Schekochihin, Luis O. Silva, Raspberry Simpson, Vasiliki Stergiou, Raoul M. G. M. Trines, Thibault Vieu, Nikolaos Charitonidis, Robert Bingham, Gianluca Gregori
Institutions: University of Oxford, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, University of Lisbon, Instituto Superior Técnico, Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Grupo de Lasers e Plasmas, GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, European Organization for Nuclear Research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Science and Technology Facilities Council, University of Iceland, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, AWE Nuclear Security Technologies, Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, National Technical University of Athens, University of Strathclyde
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4416008647