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  • Exploring The Beam-Plasma Interaction

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    Nisa Melis Atıcı
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    The document describes a proposed experiment by a group of high school students to explore the interaction between particle beams and plasma. The experiment would use electron and positron beams at energies between 1-5 GeV passing through an argon plasma tube. Various detectors would measure beam deflections, energy loss, particle multiplicity, and showers. The goals are to investigate if beam-plasma interaction could form the basis for new particle physics experiments and better understand the material properties of plasma. The students hope to gain hands-on research experience and make a contribution to this unexplored area of physics.

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    BL4S_CosmicParticles

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    The document describes a proposed experiment by a group of high school students to explore the interaction between particle beams and plasma. The experiment would use electron and positron beams at energies between 1-5 GeV passing through an argon plasma tube. Various detectors would measure beam deflections, energy loss, particle multiplicity, and showers. The goals are to investigate if beam-plasma interaction could form the basis for new particle physics experiments and better understand the material properties of plasma. The students hope to gain hands-on research experience and make a contribution to this unexplored area of physics.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    29 views4 pages

    Exploring The Beam-Plasma Interaction

    Uploaded by

    Nisa Melis Atıcı
    The document describes a proposed experiment by a group of high school students to explore the interaction between particle beams and plasma. The experiment would use electron and positron beams at energies between 1-5 GeV passing through an argon plasma tube. Various detectors would measure beam deflections, energy loss, particle multiplicity, and showers. The goals are to investigate if beam-plasma interaction could form the basis for new particle physics experiments and better understand the material properties of plasma. The students hope to gain hands-on research experience and make a contribution to this unexplored area of physics.

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    of 4

    EXPLORING THE BEAM-PLASMA

    INTERACTION
    Bengisu Güneş, Ceyda Dizin, Elif Domurcuk, Eslem Elif Sığırcı, Fatma Berra Akın, Kamergül
    Sert, M.Said Bozkurt, Nisa Melis Atıcı

    Team Coach: Dr. Burak Bilki

    COSMIC PARTICLES

    1.Introduction
    The test beam facilities worldwide such as the ones at CERN [1], DESY [2] and Fermilab [3]
    have allowed scientists to test their particle detectors for years. These detectors had solid,
    liquid and gas active media and as a result, the tests have revealed extensive information
    about the interaction between the beam particles and these three states of matter. On the other
    hand, the interaction of beam particles with plasma has not been investigated yet. We are here
    to fill in this gap and explore the beam-plasma interaction.

    2.Motivation
    #limitlesscuriosity

    We are a group of high school students from all over Turkey who organize and get together in
    regular meetings to discuss popular scientific topics. We have an active and lively interest in
    particle physics and we follow the achievements of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN
    closely. In the future, we plan to become scientists who steer the future of science. We have
    always been in contact with scientists from Turkish universities for mentoring, but we think
    that it is time for us to get our hands into real physics with the unmatched kickstart offered
    through BL4S. Being in a scientific facility like DESY, interacting with particle physics
    experts and performing a real physics experiment would bring us way forward on our path.
    We are also sure to bring this unique experience to the awareness of our friends and the high
    school community, and furthermore, the national and international scientific discussion
    forums.

    1
    3. Experiment

    3.1 Theoretical Background


    The interaction of particles with matter is a broad topic that is also intrinsically related to our
    everyday life. The in-depth understanding of the interactions is a crucial component of
    development in many areas. This includes the development of modern medical imaging and
    treatment techniques, design of aircrafts and spacecrafts, and design of various particle
    detectors to be used in the large-scale particle physics experiments that enable us to explore
    the unknown.

    The physics of the interactions of particles through various solids, liquids and gases has been
    under study for long and is relatively well understood [4]. Based on this knowledge, various
    solid state detectors and active media e.g. silicon sensors [5], scintillators [6], Cerenkov
    detectors [7], etc.; liquid active media e.g. cryogenic noble liquids, Ar, Xe, etc. [8], and liquid
    scintillators [9]; and gaseous detectors e.g. gas electron multipliers [10], resistive plate
    chambers [11], multiwire proportional chambers [12], etc. have been developed. Together
    with the advancements in electronics and data processing, this knowledge of particle-matter
    interactions forms the basis of the construction of large-scale collider and non-collider high
    energy physics experiments.

    The interaction of particles with plasma, the fourth state of matter, on the other hand, has
    never been studied. In the laboratory, a plasma can be generated simply by applying high
    voltage across e.g. argon confined at sub-atmospheric pressures. For example, argon
    contained in a 15 cc plasma tube at 100 mbar would contain approximately 4x1019 atoms. If
    ionization can be obtained at 50 % efficiency, electron/ion densities of 1018/cm3 can be
    achieved. This is a considerably high density, hence the interaction of particles with plasma is
    worth investigating.

    3.2 Research Questions


    Since the investigation of the interaction of particles with plasma is an unexplored territory,
    the extent of information that can be obtained during the BL4S experiment is rather difficult
    to assess. Here is the starting list of questions we will be seeking answers for:

    • Can we measure the interaction of electrons and positrons with plasma? How is it
    characterized (a simple deflection in the beam, elastic/inelastic collisions with plasma
    electrons/ions, something dramatically new, …)?
    • Can this interaction form the basis of a new generation of particle physics experiments
    such as a fixed target Higgs factory with positrons on plasma?
    • What is the material budget of the plasma in terms of radiation lengths?
    • What is the effect of the traversing beam on the plasma properties?

    2
    3.3 Experimental Setup
    The experimental setup we will use is shown in Fig. 1. We will use a small argon plasma tube
    (e.g. a cylinder of 20 mm diameter and 50 mm length) and cover the lateral sides of the tube
    with scintillators to measure large angle scatterings and leakage energy of showers. The
    upstream and downstream ends will be equipped with beam telescopes to measure small angle
    deflections of the beam, and charged particle multiplicity in case of interactions. Fast
    scintillators for time of flight measurements will be used to calculate the energy loss of the
    beam particles going through the plasma, hence the material budget of the plasma for the
    beam. We will also validate this with the lead crystal calorimeter, the most downstream
    detector of the experiment.

    Figure 1:Experimental setup for the measurement of beam-plasma interaction.

    We would like to take measurements with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 GeV electrons and positrons. We
    will investigate all possible scenarios and measure the relevant probabilities. The plasma
    structure is quite complex and it is difficult to come up with a functional form that can
    describe the spatial features of it with high precision. Therefore, we will need relatively large
    statistics at each energy and particle type to infer the probabilities of various possibilities. To
    name a few, such possibilities include no interaction at all, annihilation, the production of
    light mesons and a full cascade of electromagnetic interactions.

    4.What we hope to take away?


    We would like to make our first step into the real physics world by doing an unprecedented
    particle physics experiment in a world-class facility with high-level scientists. With this
    experiment, we hope to make a big accomplishment in our ability to use scientific methods
    and equipment, and communicate scientific results. We would like to carry this experience to
    our future projects and academic life. We would like to share our impressions out of this
    experience of our lifetimes with the rest of the world to reinforce the interest in science.

    3
    5. Acknowledgements

    We would like to thank Dr. Markus Joos, Dr. Paul Schütze, Ayşe Uçak, and Dr. Şeyda Ipek
    for answering all of our questions promptly; to Margherita Boselli and Prof. Dr. Serkant Ali
    Çetin for the information they provided about the competition; and to Fatih Yıldırım for
    helping us editing the video.

    References

    1. https://indico.cern.ch/event/813822/contributions/3648315/
    2. https://indico.cern.ch/event/813822/contributions/3648339/
    3. https://indico.cern.ch/event/813822/contributions/3648350/
    4. https://pdg.lbl.gov/2019/reviews/rpp2018-rev-passage-particles-
    matter.pdf
    5. http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Silicon_detectors_in_High_Energy_P
    hysics_experiments and references therein.
    6. https://indico.cern.ch/event/602044/contributions/2429699/
    7. https://www.jlab.org/conferences/CLAS12/Cooper.pdf
    8. B. Abi, et.al., “First results on ProtoDUNE-SP liquid argon time
    projection chamber performance from a beam test at the CERN Neutrino
    Platform”, JINST 15, P12004, 2020.
    9. M. Amouzegar, et.al., “Liquid scintillator tiles for calorimetry”, JINST
    11, P11018, 2016.
    10. F. Sauli, “The gas electron multiplier (GEM): Operating principles and
    applications”, Nucl. Instr. And Meth. A 805, 2, 2016.
    11. https://agenda.infn.it/event/19942/timetable/#all.detailed, link to an
    international conference entirely dedicated to the RPCs.
    12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_chamber

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