A Novel Antimatter Detector with Application to Dark Matter Searches

Craig, W W ; Fabris, L ; Madden, N ; Ziock, K ; Hailey, C ; Aramaki, T ; Gabhauer, F ; Koglin, J ; Mori, K ; Yu, H

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

关键词: Spectrometers;    Decay;    Antiproton Beams;    Antiparticles;    Testing;   

DOI  :  10.2172/928152
RP-ID  :  UCRL-TR-218926
RP-ID  :  W-7405-ENG-48
RP-ID  :  928152

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

We report on recent accelerator testing of a prototype general antiparticle spectrometer (GAPS). GAPS uses a novel approach for indirect dark matter searches that exploits the antideuterons produced in neutralino-neutralino annihilations. GAPS captures these antideuterons into a target with the subsequent formation of exotic atoms. These exotic atoms decay with the emission of x-rays of precisely defined energy and a correlated pion signature from nuclear annihilation. This signature uniquely characterizes the antideuterons. Preliminary analysis of data from a prototype GAPS in an antiproton beam at the KEK accelerator in Japan has confirmed the multiple x-ray/pion star topology and indicated x-ray yields consistent with prior expectations. Moreover, our success in utilizing solid rather than gas targets represents a significant simplification over our original approach and offers potential gains in sensitivity through reduced dead mass in the target area.