The Effect of Multipole-Enhanced Diffusion on the Joule Heating of a Cold Non-Neutral Plasma

POSTER

Abstract

One proposed technique for trapping anti-atoms is to superimpose a Ioffe-Pritchard style magnetic-minimum neutral trap on a standard Penning trap used to trap the charged atomic constituents. Adding a magnetic multipole field in this way removes the azimuthal symmetry of the ideal Penning trap and introduces a new avenue for radial diffusion. Enhanced diffusion will lead to increased Joule heating of a nonneutral plasma, potentially adversely affecting the formation rate of anti-atoms and increasing the required trap depth. We present a model of this effect with comparison to measurements from an intended anti-atom trap.

Authors

  • Steve Chapman

    University of California - Berkeley, Univeristy of California, Berkeley

  • Alex Povilus

    University of California - Berkeley, University of California, Berkeley

  • Joel Fajans

    University of California - Berkeley, U.C. Berkeley