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Register a new userGAPS, low-energy antimatter for indirect dark-matter search
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The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) is designed to carry out indirect dark matter search by measuring low-energy cosmic-ray antiparticles. Below a few GeVs the flux of antiparticles produced by cosmic-ray collisions with the interstellar medium is expected to be very low and several well-motivated beyond-standard models predict a sizable contribution to the antideuteron flux. GAPS is planned to fly on a long-duration balloon over Antarctica in the austral summer of 2020. The primary detector is a 1m3 central volume containing planes of Si(Li) detectors. This volume is surrounded by a time-of-flight system to both trigger the Si(Li) detector and reconstruct the particle tracks. The detection principle of the experiment relies on the identification of the antiparticle annihilation pattern. Low energy antiparticles slow down in the apparatus and they are captured in the medium to form exotic excited atoms, which de-excite by emitting characteristic X-rays. Afterwards they undergo nuclear annihilation, resulting in a star of pions and protons. The simultaneous measurement of the stopping depth and the dE/dx loss of the primary antiparticle, of the X-ray energies and of the star particle-multiplicity provides very high rejection power, that is critical in rare-event search. GAPS will be able to perform a precise measurement of the cosmic antiproton flux below 250 MeV, as well as a sensitive search for antideuterons.
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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.
Experiments aiming to directly detect dark matter (DM) particles have yet to make robust detections, thus underscoring the need for complementary approaches such as searches for new particles at colliders, and indirect DM searches in cosmic-ray spectra. Low energy (< 0.25 GeV/n) cosmic-ray antiparticles such as antideuterons are strong candidates for probing DM models, as the yield of these particles from DM processes can exceed the astrophysical background by more than two orders of magnitude. The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS), a balloon borne cosmic-ray detector, will perform an ultra-low background measurement of the cosmic antideuteron flux in the regime < 0.25 GeV/n, which will constrain a wide range of DM models. GAPS will also detect approximately 1000 antiprotons in an unexplored energy range throughout one long duration balloon (LDB) flight, which will constrain < 10 GeV DM models and validate the GAPS detection technique. Unlike magnetic spectrometers, GAPS relies on the formation of an exotic atom within the tracker in order to identify antiparticles. The GAPS tracker consists of ten layers of lithium-drifted silicon detectors which record dE/dx deposits from primary and nuclear annihilation product tracks, as well as measure the energy of the exotic atom deexcitation X-rays. A two-layer, plastic scintillator time of flight (TOF) system surrounds the tracker and measures the particle velocity, dE/dx deposits, and provides a fast trigger to the tracker. The nuclear annihilation product multiplicity, deexcitation X-ray energies, TOF, and stopping depth are all used together to discern between antiparticle species. This presentation provided an overview of the GAPS experiment, an update on the construction of the tracker and TOF systems, and a summary of the expected performance of GAPS in light of the upcoming LDB flight from McMurdo Station, Antarctica in 2020.
The GAPS experiment is foreseen to carry out a dark matter search by measuring low-energy cosmic-ray antideuterons and antiprotons with a novel detection approach. It will provide a new avenue to access a wide range of different dark matter models and masses from about 10GeV to 1TeV. The theoretically predicted antideuteron flux resulting from secondary interactions of primary cosmic rays is very low. Well-motivated theories beyond the Standard Model contain viable dark matter candidates, which could lead to a significant enhancement of the antideuteron flux due to annihilation or decay of dark matter particles. 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 antiproton search will provide some of the most stringent constraints on ~30GeV dark matter, will provide the best limits on primordial black hole evaporation 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 antiprotons will 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-ray transitions and will end its life by the formation of an annihilation pion/proton star. This unique event structure will deliver a nearly background free detection possibility.
We present a new module of micrOMEGAs devoted to the computation of indirect signals from dark matter annihilation in any new model with a stable weakly interacting particle. The code provides the mass spectrum, cross-sections, relic density and exotic fluxes of gamma rays, positrons and antiprotons. The propagation of charged particles in the Galactic halo is handled with a new module that allows to easily modify the propagation parameters.
The majority of the matter in the universe is still unidentified and under investigation by both direct and indirect means. Many experiments searching for the recoil of dark-matter particles off target nuclei in underground laboratories have established increasingly strong constraints on the mass and scattering cross sections of weakly interacting particles, and some have even seen hints at a possible signal. Other experiments search for a possible mixing of photons with light scalar or pseudo-scalar particles that could also constitute dark matter. Furthermore, annihilation or decay of dark matter can contribute to charged cosmic rays, photons at all energies, and neutrinos. Many existing and future ground-based and satellite experiments are sensitive to such signals. Finally, data from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN are scrutinized for missing energy as a signature of new weakly interacting particles that may be related to dark matter. In this review article we summarize the status of the field with an emphasis on the complementarity between direct detection in dedicated laboratory experiments, indirect detection in the cosmic radiation, and searches at particle accelerators.
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