Accelerator Testing of the General Antiparticle Spectrometer, a Novel Approach to Indirect Dark Matter Detection

Abstract

We report on recent accelerator testing of a prototype general antiparticle spectrometer (GAPS). GAPS is 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 multi-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.

18 pages, 9 figures, submitted to JCAP

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Cited by in corpus (26)

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• Antideuteron fluxes from dark matter annihilation in diffusion models
• Recoil Detection of the Lightest Neutralino in MSSM Singlet Extensions
• Indirect detection of light neutralino dark matter in the NMSSM
• Scalar Bilepton Dark Matter
• Zooming in on light relic neutralinos by direct detection and measurements of galactic antimatter
• Anti-helium from Dark Matter annihilations
• Dark Matter Indirect Signatures
• Collider and Dark Matter Phenomenology of Models with Mirage Unification
• Collider signals and neutralino dark matter detection in relic-density-consistent models without universality
• Anti-deuterons from heavy Dark Matter
• Investigating light neutralinos at neutrino telescopes
• Potential for Precision Measurement of Low-Energy Antiprotons with GAPS for Dark Matter and Primordial Black Hole Physics
• Neutralino, axion and axino cold dark matter in minimal, hypercharged and gaugino AMSB
• TeV physics and the Planck scale
• Mixed Higgsino Dark Matter from a Reduced SU(3) Gaugino Mass: Consequences for Dark Matter and Collider Searches
• Neutrino sector impacts SUSY dark matter
• Collider and Dark Matter Searches in Models with Mixed Modulus-Anomaly Mediated SUSY Breaking
• Implications of Compressed Supersymmetry for Collider and Dark Matter Searches
• The pGAPS experiment: an engineering balloon flight of prototype GAPS
• Mixed Higgsino Dark Matter from a Large SU(2) Gaugino Mass
• A Measurement of Atomic X-ray Yields in Exotic Atoms and Implications for an Antideuteron-Based Dark Matter Search
• Antideuterons from Dark Matter Decay
• Dark Matter Prospects in Deflected Mirage Mediation
• Antihelium-3 Sensitivity for the GRAMS Experiment