Rapid radio bursts are strong but short bursts of electromagnetic radiation, and as powerful as 500 million days are discharged in milliseconds at radio wavelengths.
For years, scientists have been puzzled as to what could be causing these brief eruptions, seen in galaxies millions to billions of light-years away. Then, in April 2020, a short, powerful flash of radio waves from something inside the Milky Way, a magnetar, occurred.
This suggests that at least some rapid radio bursts are coming from very magnetized dead stars. Now, physicists have found a way to replicate what we think happened in the lab in the early stages of these crazy explosions, according to the theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED).
“Our laboratory simulations are a small size analog of the magnetic medium. This allows us to study QED couple plasmas, ”said physicist Kenan Kuo of Princeton University.
Magnetar is a type of dead star called a neutron star. When a massive star reaches the end of its life, it explodes from its outer object and its core, no longer supported by the external pressure of nuclear fusion, collapses under its own gravity to form a very dense object with a strong magnetic field.
Some neutron stars have stronger magnetic fields. It is a magnetic star. We don’t know how they got there, but their magnetic field is about 1,000 times stronger than ordinary neutron stars and nearly a quadrillion times stronger than Earth.
Scientists believe that the rapid explosion of radio is the result of a magnetic field strong enough to destroy the shape of the magnetar, and the tension that destroys the internal pressure of gravity.
It is also believed that the magnetic field is responsible for transforming matter in the space around the magnet into a plasma composed of matter and antimatter pairs. These pairs, consisting of an electron with a negative charge and a positron with a positive charge, are thought to be involved in the propagation of rare, fast repetitive radio bursts.
It is even called plasma, and it is completely different from most plasmas in the universe. Normal plasma is made up of electrons and heavier ions. Matter and antimatter pairs in a plasma pair have equal masses and spontaneously form and destroy each other. The bulk behavior of a plasma is quite different from that of a normal plasma.
Because magnetic fields are so strong, Ko and his colleagues found a way to create double plasma in the lab in other ways.
Coe explains: “Instead of simulating a strong magnetic field, we use a powerful laser. It converts energy into paired plasma through so-called QED cascades. Then, the double plasma converts the laser pulse to a higher frequency. The exciting result shows the possibilities. A QED couple plasma in laboratories To create and monitor and conduct experiments to confirm theories about the speed of radio explosions. ”
This technique involves producing a high-speed beam of electrons that travel close to the speed of light. A moderately powerful laser is fired at this beam, and the resulting collision creates a compatible plasma.
It also slows down the formation of plasma. This may solve one of the problems found in previous experiments to create paired plasma.
“We think we know the laws that govern their collective behavior,” said Princeton University physicist Nat Fish. “Collective behavior is hard to see. So the main step for us is to think of it as a shared production and monitoring issue. ”
The team is now set to test their idea in a series of experiments at SLAC’s National Accelerator Laboratory. They hope this will help them determine how magnetars produce paired plasmas, how these plasma pairs produce rapid radio bursts, and the previously unknown physics that may be related.
The team’s paper was published in the Journal of Plasma Physics.
Source: Science Alert
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