Speaker
Description
The GAPS experiment is designed to conduct a dark matter search by measuring low-energy cosmic-ray antinuclei (antiprotons, antideuterons, antihelium) with a novel detection approach. For the case of antiprotons, a high-statistics measurement in the unexplored low-energy range will be conducted. In contrast, not a single cosmic antideuteron has been detected by any experiment thus far. However, well-motivated theories beyond the standard model of particle physics contain viable dark matter candidates, which could lead to a significant enhancement of the antideuteron flux due to annihilation of dark matter particles. This flux contribution is calculated to be especially large at low energies, which leads to a high discovery potential for GAPS. This antideuteron search is essentially background free because the theoretically predicted antideuteron flux resulting from secondary interactions of cosmic rays with the interstellar gas is very low. Furthermore, the search for low-energy antihelium-3 and antihelium-4 promises an even lower secondary background and can also be performed with GAPS. The experiment is designed to achieve its goals via a series of long-duration balloon flights at high altitude in Antarctica. GAPS is currently under construction and preparing for the first flight. The presentation will briefly review the theoretical status, introduce the GAPS experiment and its capabilities, and report on the construction and instrument performance status.
| Collaboration name | GAPS |
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