GAPS: A New Cosmic Ray Anti-matter Experiment

TL;DR

GAPS is a novel balloon-borne experiment using exotic atom techniques to detect cosmic-ray antimatter, aiming to improve dark matter searches and extend antiproton measurements in a new energy regime.

Contribution

It introduces a new detection method for cosmic-ray antimatter that does not require strong magnetic fields, enabling sensitive dark matter and antimatter studies.

Findings

Designed to detect primary antideuterons with specific energy range

Expected to be sensitive to WIMPs with masses 10-100 GeV

Will extend antiproton spectrum measurements at low energies

Abstract

The General AntiParticle Spectrometer (GAPS) is a balloon-borne instrument designed to detect cosmic-ray antimatter using the novel exotic atom technique, obviating the strong magnetic fields required by experiments like AMS, PAMELA, or BESS. It will be sensitive to primary antideuterons with kinetic energies of $\approx0.05-0.2$ GeV/nucleon, providing some overlap with the previously mentioned experiments at the highest energies. For $3\times35$ day balloon flights, and standard classes of primary antideuteron propagation models, GAPS will be sensitive to $m_{\mathrm{DM}}\approx10-100$ GeV c$^{-2}$ WIMPs with a dark-matter flux to astrophysical flux ratio approaching 100. This clean primary channel is a key feature of GAPS and is crucial for a rare event search. Additionally, the antiproton spectrum will be extended with high statistics measurements to cover the $0.07 \leq E \leq 0.25 $ GeV domain. For $E>0.2$ GeV GAPS data will be complementary to existing experiments, while $E<0.2$ GeV explores a new regime. The first flight is scheduled for late 2020 in Antarctica. These proceedings will describe the astrophysical processes and backgrounds relevant to the dark matter search, a brief discussion of detector operation, and construction progress made to date.