Progress of the BESS Superconducting Spectrometer

• Main Authors: S Haino, K Abe, K Anraku, H Fuke, T Hams, N Ikeda, A Itasaki, K Izumi, T Kumazawa, M H Lee, T Maeno, Y Makida, S Matsuda, N Matsui, H Matsumoto, K Matsumoto, J W Mitchell, A A Moiseev, J Nishimura, M Nozaki, H Omiya, S Orito, J F Ormes, T Sanuki, M Sasaki, E S Seo, Y Shikaze, R E Streitmatter, J Suzuki, Y Takasugi, S Takeuchi, K Tanaka, T Taniguchi, K Tanizaki, T Yamagami, A Yamamoto, Y Yamamoto, K Yamato, T Yoshida, K Yoshimura
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1039.7815; http://alpha.sinp.msu.ru/%7Epanov/Lib/Papers/CRMAGNET/BESS-2004-NIM.pdf

Abstract Balloon-borne Experiment with a Superconducting Spectrometer (BESS) is a balloon-borne spectrometer to study elementary particle phenomena in the early Universe as well as the origin and the propagation of cosmic radiation. The instrument has a unique feature of a thin superconducting solenoid which enables a large acceptance with a cylindrical configuration. Nine balloon flights have been successfully carried out since 1993. In 2002, the detector was upgraded as the BESS-TeV spectrometer to extend primary cosmic-ray spectra up to 1 TeV. For further studies of low-energy antiprotons, a new spectrometer, BESS-Polar, with a ultra-thin superconducting solenoid is being developed for long duration balloon flights in Antarctica. r