Extraction of Antiparticles Concentrated in Planetary Magnetic Fields
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
DRAPER LABORATORY EXTRACTION OF ANTIPARTICLES CONCENTRATED IN PLANETARY MAGNETIC FIELDS JAMES BICKFORD PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR NIAC PHASE II YEAR 1 REPORT AUGUST 2007 555 TECHNOLOGY SQUARE CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER 1 – BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY ................................................................................. 5 OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................................................. 5 UTILITY OF ANTIMATTER ........................................................................................................................... 6 CURRENT PRODUCTION AND STORAGE CAPABILITIES ................................................................................ 8 IN SITU PRODUCTION AND TRANSPORT ...................................................................................................... 9 NATURAL SOURCES OF ANTIPROTONS ...................................................................................................... 11 ANTIPROTON COLLECTORS ....................................................................................................................... 13 SYSTEM CONCEPT ..................................................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 2 – EARTH’S ANTIPROTON RADIATION BELT .......................................................... 17 GOVERNING EQUATION AND DIFFUSIVE TRANSPORT ............................................................................... 17 TRAP STABILITY LIMITS ........................................................................................................................... 18 ANTIPROTON SOURCE TERMS ................................................................................................................... 19 Pair Production in the Atmosphere ..................................................................................................... 19 Albedo Neutron and Antineutron Injection Model ............................................................................... 24 LOSS TERMS ............................................................................................................................................. 30 Average Atmosphere ............................................................................................................................ 31 Inelastic Losses .................................................................................................................................... 34 Coulomb Energy Losses ...................................................................................................................... 35 STEADY STATE SOLUTION FORM .............................................................................................................. 36 EARTH ANTIPROTON BELT RESULTS ........................................................................................................ 37 CODE VALIDATION – PROTON BELT MODEL ............................................................................................ 41 COMPARISON TO PHASE I RESULTS ........................................................................................................... 41 CHAPTER 3 – JOVIAN ANTIPROTON RADIATION BELTS .......................................................... 43 SIGNIFICANT FACTORS IN THE JOVIAN RADIATION BELTS ........................................................................ 43 JOVIAN ALBEDO ANTINEUTRON SPECTRUM ............................................................................................. 45 ANTIPARTICLE GENERATION IN SATURN’S RINGS .................................................................................... 46 Antineutron Production Spectrum Through H2O ................................................................................. 47 Ring Source Injection Model ............................................................................................................... 48 Moon/Dust Loss Model ........................................................................................................................ 50 Diffusion Rate Estimates ...................................................................................................................... 51 RADIATION BELT MODEL RESULTS .......................................................................................................... 51 Saturn .................................................................................................................................................. 51 Jupiter .................................................................................................................................................. 52 Uranus and Neptune ............................................................................................................................ 53 DISCUSSION .............................................................................................................................................. 55 CHAPTER 4 – OTHER NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL SOURCES OF ANTIPROTONS .............. 56 GALACTIC COSMIC RAY FLUX .................................................................................................................. 56 PAIR PRODUCTION IN COMET TAILS ......................................................................................................... 58 FLUX IN ATMOSPHERES AND NEAR PLANETARY SURFACES ..................................................................... 59 GCR/SOLAR INTERACTIONS ..................................................................................................................... 59 SPACE BASED ANTIMATTER FACTORIES ................................................................................................... 60 CHAPTER 5 – POSITRONS ..................................................................................................................... 61 DESCRIPTIVE COORDINATES ..................................................................................................................... 61 POSITRON SOURCE TERMS ........................................................................................................................ 62 LOSS AND TRANSPORT PROCESSES ........................................................................................................... 64 2 Annihilation Losses .............................................................................................................................. 64 High Energy Processes ........................................................................................................................ 66 Degradation of Positrons by Coulomb Processes ............................................................................... 67 Radial Transport of Magnetically Confined Positrons ........................................................................ 68 Angular Scattering of Positrons within the Magnetic Confinement .................................................... 68 BOUNDARY OF THE CONFINEMENT REGION .............................................................................................. 70 SIMULATION MODEL OF CONFINED POSITRONS ........................................................................................ 73 BASELINE RESULTS .................................................................................................................................. 74 GCR SOURCE SCALING ............................................................................................................................. 76 CHAPTER 6 – COLLECTOR MODELING ........................................................................................... 78 LORENTZ FORCE MOTION .......................................................................................................................... 78 PLASMAS ................................................................................................................................................... 78 DRIFT-LIMITED SYSTEMS ........................................................................................................................... 79 DEBYE-LIMITED SYSTEMS ......................................................................................................................... 81 MODELING OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................... 82 COMPUTATIONAL TECHNIQUE ................................................................................................................... 82 FIELD MODELING ....................................................................................................................................... 83 INPUT MODELS .......................................................................................................................................... 87 FLUX MAPPING ......................................................................................................................................... 87 BUCKINGHAM PI ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................................