The pGAPS experiment: an engineering balloon flight of prototype GAPS

TL;DR

The pGAPS engineering balloon flight tested prototype GAPS subsystems to verify performance in preparation for Antarctic cosmic-ray antiparticle searches targeting dark matter signatures.

Contribution

This paper reports the successful engineering flight of the pGAPS prototype, demonstrating the basic performance of GAPS subsystems for future scientific Antarctic balloon flights.

Findings

Successful verification of GAPS subsystem performance

Validation of balloon flight procedures in Japan

Preparation for future Antarctic cosmic-ray observations

Abstract

The General Anti-Particle Spectrometer (GAPS) project is being carried out to search for primary cosmic-ray antiparticles especially for antideuterons produced by cold dark matter. GAPS plans to realize the science observation by Antarctic long duration balloon flights in the late 2010s. In preparation for the Antarctic science flights, an engineering balloon flight using a prototype of the GAPS instrument, "pGAPS", was successfully carried out in June 2012 in Japan to verify the basic performance of each GAPS subsystem. The outline of the pGAPS flight campaign is briefly reported.