GAPS - Dark matter search with low-energy cosmic-ray antideuterons and antiprotons
2015
The GAPS experiment is foreseen to carry out a
dark mattersearch by measuring low-energy cosmic-ray antideuterons and
antiprotonswith a novel detection approach. It will provide a new avenue to access a wide range of different
dark mattermodels and masses from about 10 GeV to 1 TeV. The theoretically predicted antideuteron flux resulting from secondary interactions of primary cosmic rays is very low. Well-
motivated theoriesbeyond the Standard Model contain viable
dark mattercandidates, which could lead to a significant enhancement of the antideuteron flux due to annihilation or decay of
dark matterparticles. This flux contribution is believed to be especially large at low energies, which leads to a high discovery potential for GAPS. The GAPS low-energy
antiprotonsearch will provide some of the most stringent constraints on ~30 GeV
dark matter, will provide the best limits on
primordial black holeevaporation on galactic length scales, and explore new discovery space in cosmic-ray physics. GAPS is designed to achieve its goals via long duration balloon flights at high altitude in Antarctica. The detector itself will consist of 10 planes of Si(Li) solid state detectors and a surrounding time-of-flight system. Antideuterons and
antiprotonswill be slowed down in the Si(Li) material, replace a shell electron and form an excited
exotic atom. The atom will be deexcited by
characteristic X-raytransitions and will end its life by the formation of an annihilation pion/proton star. This unique
event structurewill deliver a nearly background free detection possibility.
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