Astrophysics with the AMS-02 experiment

TL;DR

The AMS-02 experiment on the ISS aims to measure cosmic ray spectra with high precision, providing new insights into cosmic ray composition, propagation, and solar cycle effects over a multi-year period.

Contribution

This paper details the capabilities and expected scientific contributions of the AMS-02 detector, including its design, expected data collection, and relevance to cosmic ray astrophysics.

Findings

Detector can identify charge, velocity, and mass of cosmic rays.

Expected to collect over 10^10 nuclei during its mission.

Will improve understanding of cosmic ray propagation and solar cycle effects.

Abstract

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), whose final version AMS-02 is to be installed on the International Space Station (ISS) for at least 3 years, is a detector designed to measure charged cosmic ray spectra with energies up to the TeV region and with high energy photon detection capability up to a few hundred GeV, using state-of-the-art particle identification techniques. Following the successful flight of the detector prototype (AMS-01) aboard the space shuttle, AMS-02 is expected to provide a significant improvement on the current knowledge of the elemental and isotopic composition of hadronic cosmic rays due to its long exposure time (minimum of 3 years) and large acceptance (0.5 m^2 sr) which will enable it to collect a total statistics of more than 10^10 nuclei. Detector capabilities for charge, velocity and mass identification, estimated from ion beam tests and detailed Monte Carlo simulations, are presented. Relevant issues in cosmic ray astrophysics addressed by AMS-02, including the test of cosmic ray propagation models, galactic confinement times and the influence of solar cycles on the local cosmic ray flux, are briefly discussed.