Temperature Relaxation Rates for Strongly Magnetized Plasmas in Antimatter Traps

Antimatter appears in nature only in tiny quantities relative to matter for reasons not yet fully understood. To address this open question, a better understanding of the fundamental physics governing antimatter is needed. The ALPHA experiment at CERN is working to improve our understanding of antimatter by trapping and studying antihydrogen. The plasmas used to form the antihydrogen fall into the very strongly magnetized regime, meaning that the gyrofrequency exceeds the plasma frequency [1] and in the moderate Coulomb coupling regime denoting that the potential energy of interaction is on the order of the kinetic energy [2]. These regimes modify the Coulomb collision frequency making traditional theories invalid [3]. Our goal is to develop the theoretical plasma physics models in these regimes to better understand the dynamics of these non-neutral plasmas, which may in turn aid in antihydrogen production.