Cosmic Antiproton Sensitivity for the GAPS Experiment

Discussion timeslot (ZOOM-Meeting): 16. July 2021 - 18:00
ZOOM-Meeting URL: https://icrc2021.desy.de/pf_access_abstracts
Corresponding Session: https://icrc2021-venue.desy.de/channel/Presenter-Forum-1-Evening-All-Categories/48
Abstract:
'The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) experiment is a balloon payload designed to measure low-energy cosmic antinuclei during at least three ∼35-day Antarctic flights, with the first flight expected in December, 2022. With its large geometric acceptance and novel exotic atom-based particle identification method, GAPS will detect ∼1000 antiprotons per flight and produce a precision cosmic antiproton spectrum in the kinetic energy range of 0.03 − 0.23 GeV at float altitude, corresponding to 0.085 − 0.30 GeV at the top of the atmosphere. With these high statistics in a measurement extending to lower energies than any previous experiment, and with orthogonal systematic uncertainty compared to a magnetic spectrometer, the GAPS antiproton measurement will be sensitive to physics including dark matter annihilation, primordial black hole evaporation, and cosmic ray propagation. The antiproton measurement will also validate the GAPS exotic atom technique for the antideuteron and antihelium rare-event searches and provide insight into models of cosmic particle attenuation in the atmosphere. This contribution demonstrates the GAPS sensitivity to antiprotons using a full instrument simulation, event reconstruction, and solar and atmospheric effects.'

Authors: Field Rogers
Collaboration: GAPS

Indico-ID: 1335
Proceeding URL: https://pos.sissa.it/395/136