Speaker
Description
The Antarctic Demonstrator for the Advanced Particle-astrophysics Telescope (ADAPT) is a NASA suborbital mission for a high-altitude balloon flight over Antarctica, which is anticipated to fly in the 2026-27 season. ADAPT validates key technologies for the future space-based APT, which aims for an order of magnitude improvement in MeV-TeV gamma-ray sensitivity. This presentation details the Design and Construction of the ADAPT Anti-Coincidence Detector (ACD). The ACD is critical for achieving high-efficiency charged particle veto, selecting gamma-ray candidate events from the overwhelming cosmic-ray background. The detector uses segmented plastic scintillator tiles read out by Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs). We will detail the fabrication process and present early performance metrics, including light yield measurements, validating the ACD as a high-performance pathfinder for the full APT mission.