AMS tracking in-orbit performance

TL;DR

This paper discusses the in-orbit performance of the AMS-02 detector's silicon microstrip tracker, highlighting its high precision measurements of cosmic ray trajectories, charge, and rigidity in space.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of the tracker’s in-orbit performance and its influence on the overall capabilities of the AMS-02 spectrometer.

Findings

High position resolution (~10 μm) achieved in space

Effective charge identification up to Z=26

Reliable trajectory measurements in the space environment

Abstract

AMS-02 is a high precision magnetic spectrometer for cosmic rays in the GeV to TeV energy range. Its tracker consists of nine layers of double-sided silicon microstrip sensors. They are used to locate the trajectories of cosmic rays in the 0.14 T field of a cylindrical magnet, thus measuring their rigidity $p/Z$ and charge sign. In addition, they deliver a high resolution measurement of the absolute charge $|Z|$. The detector has been designed to operate in space with a position resolution of about 10 $\mu$m for each hit and charge identification capabilities up to $Z=26$. In this talk I describe the performance in orbit of this detector component and its impact on the overall performance of the spectrometer.