The GAPS experiment: Low-energy antinuclei measurements for dark matter searches
GAPS (General Anti-Particle Spectrometer) is a balloon-borne experiment designed to measure low-energy (<0.25 GeV/n) cosmic antinuclei (i.e., antiprotons, antideuterons, and antihelium nuclei) as a signature of dark matter annihilation or decay. According to viable beyond-the-Standard Model theor...
| Published in: | EPJ Web of Conferences |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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EDP Sciences
2023
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202328007002 https://doaj.org/article/2b46c9f27bfb4d40becedf761fac35f6 |
| Summary: | GAPS (General Anti-Particle Spectrometer) is a balloon-borne experiment designed to measure low-energy (<0.25 GeV/n) cosmic antinuclei (i.e., antiprotons, antideuterons, and antihelium nuclei) as a signature of dark matter annihilation or decay. According to viable beyond-the-Standard Model theories, the predicted dark matter signal in the low-energy antideuterons and antihelium nuclei channels is several orders of magnitude higher than the astrophysical background. The experiment will conduct a series of at least three long-duration balloon flights at high altitudes from Antarctica. The instrument is composed of a Si(Li) tracker surrounded by a Time-of-Flight system made of plastic scintillators. GAPS uses the novel exotic-atom detection technique in which an antinucleus is captured by the tracker material and forms an exotic atom. This excited exotic atom decays within the order of nanoseconds emitting X-rays at specific energies defined by the atomic transitions and annihilates emitting secondary particles (mainly pions and protons). The measured quantities (e.g., dE/dx, time of flight, annihilation vertex position, X-rays energies, etc.) allow for identifying antinuclei with high precision. |
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