145 research outputs found
The flight of the GAPS prototype experiment
The General AntiParticle Spectrometer experiment (GAPS) is foreseen to carry out a dark matter search using low-energy cosmic ray antideuterons at stratospheric altitudes with a novel detection approach. A prototype flight from Taiki, Japan was carried out in June 2012 to prove the performance of the GAPS instrument subsystems (Lithium-drifted Silicon tracker and time-of-flight) and the thermal cooling concept as well as to measure background levels. The flight was a success and the stable flight operation of the GAPS detector concept was proven. During the flight about 106 charged particle triggers were recorded, extensive X-ray calibrations of the individual tracker modules were performed by using an onboard X-ray tube, and the background level of atmospheric and cosmic X-rays was measured. The behavior of the tracker performance as a function of temperature was investigated. The tracks of charged particle events were reconstructed and used to study the tracking resolution, the detection efficiency of the tracker, and coherent X-ray backgrounds. A timing calibration of the time-of-flight subsystem was performed to measure the particle velocity. The flux as a function of flight altitude and as a function of velocity was extracted taking into account systematic instrumental effects. The developed analysis techniques will form the basis for future flights
PEBS - Positron Electron Balloon Spectrometer
The best measurement of the cosmic ray positron flux available today was
performed by the HEAT balloon experiment more than 10 years ago. Given the
limitations in weight and power consumption for balloon experiments, a novel
approach was needed to design a detector which could increase the existing data
by more than a factor of 100.
Using silicon photomultipliers for the readout of a scintillating fiber
tracker and of an imaging electromagnetic calorimeter, the PEBS detector
features a large geometrical acceptance of 2500 cm^2 sr for positrons, a total
weight of 1500 kg and a power consumption of 600 W. The experiment is intended
to measure cosmic ray particle spectra for a period of up to 20 days at an
altitude of 40 km circulating the North or South Pole.
A full Geant 4 simulation of the detector concept has been developed and key
elements have been verified in a testbeam in October 2006 at CERN.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Proceedings of the 11th Vienna
Conference on Instrumentatio
Silicon photomultiplier arrays - a novel photon detector for a high resolution tracker produced at FBK-irst, Italy
A silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) array has been developed at FBK-irst having
32 channels and a dimension of 8.0 x 1.1 mm^2. Each 250 um wide channel is
subdivided into 5 x 22 rectangularly arranged pixels. These sensors are
developed to read out a modular high resolution scintillating fiber tracker.
Key properties like breakdown voltage, gain and photon detection efficiency
(PDE) are found to be homogeneous over all 32 channels of an SiPM array. This
could make scintillating fiber trackers with SiPM array readout a promising
alternative to available tracker technologies, if noise properties and the PDE
are improved
Status of cosmic-ray antideuteron searches
The precise measurement of cosmic-ray antiparticles serves as important means
for identifying the nature of dark matter. Recent years showed that identifying
the nature of dark matter with cosmic-ray positrons and higher energy
antiprotons is difficult, and has lead to a significantly increased interest in
cosmic-ray antideuteron searches. Antideuterons may also be generated in dark
matter annihilations or decays, offering a potential breakthrough in unexplored
phase space for dark matter. Low-energy antideuterons are an important approach
because the flux from dark matter interactions exceeds the background flux by
more than two orders of magnitude in the low-energy range for a wide variety of
models. This review is based on the "dbar14 - dedicated cosmic-ray antideuteron
workshop", which brought together theorists and experimentalists in the field
to discuss the current status, perspectives, and challenges for cosmic-ray
antideuteron searches and discusses the motivation for antideuteron searches,
the theoretical and experimental uncertainties of antideuteron production and
propagation in our Galaxy, as well as give an experimental cosmic-ray
antideuteron search status update. This report is a condensed summary of the
article "Review of the theoretical and experimental status of dark matter
identification with cosmic-ray antideuteron" (arXiv:1505.07785).Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, ICRC 2015 proceeding
The GAPS Experiment to Search for Dark Matter using Low-energy Antimatter
The GAPS experiment is designed to carry out a sensitive dark matter search
by measuring low-energy cosmic ray antideuterons and antiprotons. GAPS will
provide a new avenue to access a wide range of dark matter models and masses
that is complementary to direct detection techniques, collider experiments and
other indirect detection techniques. Well-motivated theories beyond the
Standard Model contain viable dark matter candidates which could lead to a
detectable signal of antideuterons resulting from the annihilation or decay of
dark matter particles. The dark matter contribution to the antideuteron flux is
believed to be especially large at low energies (E < 1 GeV), where the
predicted flux from conventional astrophysical sources (i.e. from secondary
interactions of cosmic rays) is very low. The GAPS low-energy antiproton search
will provide stringent constraints on less than 10 GeV dark matter, will
provide the best limits on primordial black hole evaporation on Galactic length
scales, and will explore new discovery space in cosmic ray physics.
Unlike other antimatter search experiments such as BESS and AMS that use
magnetic spectrometers, GAPS detects antideuterons and antiprotons using an
exotic atom technique. This technique, and its unique event topology, will give
GAPS a nearly background-free detection capability that is critical in a
rare-event search. GAPS is designed to carry out its science program using
long-duration balloon flights in Antarctica. A prototype instrument was
successfully flown from Taiki, Japan in 2012. GAPS has now been approved by
NASA to proceed towards the full science instrument, with the possibility of a
first long-duration balloon flight in late 2020. Here we motivate low-energy
cosmic ray antimatter searches and discuss the current status of the GAPS
experiment and the design of the payload.Comment: 8 pags, 3 figures, Proc. 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference
(ICRC 2017), Busan, Kore
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