General antiparticle spectrometer

General antiparticle spectrometer (GAPS) is a planned experiment that will use a high-altitude balloon flying in Antarctica to look for antideuteron particles from outer space cosmic rays,[1] in an effort to search for dark matter. Anti-deuterons could perhaps be produced by the annihilation of hypothetical weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs).[2] The goal of the GAPS experiment is to capture anti-deuterons in a target material, to form an exotic atom in an excited state. The exotic atom would quickly decay, producing detectable X-rays energies with pion signature from nuclear annihilation.[3]

The GAPS ground test was successfully using a particle accelerator at KEK in 2004 and 2005. The first high-altitude balloon test was done in June 2012 with six Si(Li) detectors.

GAPS team

The team includes:[4]

• Columbia University T. Aramaki, C.J. Hailey (P.I.), N. Madden, K. Mori, Florian Gahbauer
• University of California, San Diego S.E. Boggs
• University of California, Los Angeles R.A. Ong, J. Zweerink, S. A. I. Mognet
• University of Hawaii P. Von Doetinchem
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory W.W. Craig
• Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency – Institute of Space & Astronautical Science, N. Bando, H. Fuke, T. Yoshida
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology K. Perez

References

1. Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Review of the theoretical and experimental status of dark matter identi cation with cosmic-ray antideuterons
2. F. Donato, N. Fornengo, P. Salati, Antideuterons as a Signature of Supersymmetric Dark Matter (arXiv version)
3. Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Antideuteron Sensitivity for the GAPS Experiment
4. UCLA, Cosmic-ray Cosmic-ray antideuteron searches antideuteron searches, Feb. 2016

Further reading

• Astrophysics, High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, Antideuteron Sensitivity for the GAPS Experiment, by T. Aramaki, C.J. Hailey, S.E. Boggs, P. von Doetinchem, H. Fuke, S.I. Mognet, R.A. Ong, K. Perez, J. Zweerink, 8 June 2015
• uchicago.edu, Antideuteron Signatures of Dark Matter with the GAPS Experiment, by Kerstin Perez Haverford College/Columbia University, U. Chicago HEP Seminar, February 16, 2015
• IOP science, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Volume 2006 January 2006, C J Hailey
• Gizmag, Dark matter, WIMPS, and NASA's Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer data, By Brian Dodson, May 19, 2013
• UCLA, UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy, GAPS (General Antiparticle Spectrometer) project
• NASA, The General Antiparticle Spectrometer Experiment: Search for Dark Matter and Primordial Black Holes, by Charles J. Hailey (for the GAPS Collaboration), Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University.
• Columbia University, General Antiparticle Spectrometer Experiment, (GAPS): Recent Progress and Future Plans, C. J. Hailey, T. Aramaki, H. Fuke†, J.E. Koglin, K. Mori, N. Madden and T. Yoshida.
• Cornell University, The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) – Hunt for dark matter using low-energy antideuterons, by Ph. von Doetinchem, T. Aramaki, St. Boggs, W. Craig, H. Fuke, F. Gahbauer, Ch. Hailey, J. Koglin, N. Madden, I. Mognet, K. Mori, R. Ong, T. Yoshida, T. Zhang, J. Zweerink, submitted on 1 December 2010.

External links

• JAXA/ISAS GAPS page (in Japanese)