Suppression of pair beam instabilities in a laboratory analogue of blazar pair cascades

Journal article

The generation of dense electron-positron pair beams in the laboratory can enable direct tests of theoretical models of γ-ray bursts and active galactic nuclei. We have successfully achieved this using ultrarelativistic protons accelerated by the Super Proton Synchrotron at (CERN). In the first application of this experimental platform, the stability of the pair beam is studied as it propagates through a meter-length plasma, analogous to TeV γ-ray-induced pair cascades in the intergalactic medium. It has been argued that pair beam instabilities disrupt the cascade, thus accounting for the observed lack of reprocessed GeV emission from TeV blazars. If true, this would remove the need for a moderate strength intergalactic magnetic field to explain the observations. We find that the pair beam instability is suppressed if the beam is not perfectly collimated or monochromatic, hence the lower limit to the intergalactic magnetic field inferred from γ-ray observations of blazars is robust.

Authors: Arrowsmith, CD; Miniati, F; Bilbao, PJ; Simon, P; Bott, AFA

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Volume: 122
• Issue: 45
• Article number: e2513365122
• Publication date: 2025-11-11
• Acceptance date: 2025-10-06
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2513365122
• EISSN: 1091-6490
• ISSN: 0027-8424
• Language: English
• Keywords: blazar jets; electron–positron pair cascades; high-energy astrophysics; plasma instabilities