Erlangen 2026 – scientific programme

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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 16: Poster Session Plasma Physics

P 16.28: Poster

Thursday, March 19, 2026, 13:45–15:45, Redoutensaal

Equilibrium and stability of an electron plasma in a levitated dipole trap — •Patrick Steinbrunner¹, Adam Deller^{1, 2}, Thomas O'Neil², Veronika Bayer^{1, 3}, Matthew Stoneking⁴, and Eve Stenson¹ — ¹Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, 85748 Garching, Germany — ²University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, 92093 USA — ³Technical University of Munich, 80333 Munich, Germany — ⁴Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, 54911 USA

As part of the APEX collaboration (An Electron Positron eXperiment) this work supports the experimental results obtained with pure electron plasmas in a levitated dipole trap using two distinct computational methods. The levitated dipole trap confines electrons on closed, purely poloidal magnetic field lines around a superconducting coil that is floating in a vacuum chamber due to external magnetic fields. In combination with positrons coming from NEPOMUC (NEutron induced POsitron source MUnich) this trap will ultimately confine a first of its kind, non-relativistic pair plasma. First measurements of the local space charge potentials are used to reconstruct the electron density distribution assuming a local thermal equilibrium along magnetic field lines and solving the Poisson-Boltzmann equation. In addition, results of a 2D drift kinetic model are presented that extend a linear stability analysis conducted previously. This model resembles the large-aspect-ratio limit of the levitated dipole trap, an infinite, current-carrying wire. The implementation of the actual magnetic dipole field is subject to a future study.

Keywords: Pair Plasma; Non-Neutral Plasma; Levitated Dipole Trap; Computational Methods; Astrophysical Plasma