出版社：SISSA, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati
摘要：The GAPS experiment is foreseen to carry out a dark matter search using cosmic-ray antideuterons at stratospheric altitudes using a novel detection approach. So far not a single cosmic antideuteron has been detected by any experiment, but well-motivated theories beyond the standard model of particle physics, e.g. supersymmetry or universal extra dimensions, contain viable dark matter candidates which could led to a significant enhancement of the antideuteron flux due to self-annihilation of the dark matter particles. This flux contribution is believed to be especially large at small energies which leads to a high discovery potential for GAPS. GAPS is designed to achieve its goals via a series of ultra-long duration balloon flights (bGAPS) at high altitude in Antarctica, starting in 2014. The detector itself will consist of 13 planes of Si(Li) solid state detectors and a time-of-flight system. The antideuterons will be slowed down in the Si(Li) material, replace a shell electron and form an excited exotic atom. The atom will be deexcited by characteristic x-ray transitions and will end its life by the formation of an annihilation pion star. This unique event structure will deliver a nearly background free detection possibility, but as the predicted antideuteron flux is very low a good understanding of the remaining backgrounds is essential. To prove the performance of the different detector components at balloon altitudes a prototype flight (pGAPS) will be conducted in 2011 from Taiki, Japan. This flight will also be important to understand the particle and x-ray backgrounds, which might influence the final bGAPS design.
