Project
Collaboration in the International Space Station experiment AMS for the detection of intermediate energy cosmic rays

Code 2024.00992.CERN

Beneficiary Entity

LIP - Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas

Project summary

The current proposal aims to get funding for the Portuguese participation in the AMS (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer), a cosmic-ray (CR) observatory installed on the International Space Station (ISS). This is a CERN recognized experiment and a broad international collaboration formed by more than 500 researchers of institutes coming from America, Europe and Asia. ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) are two of the main organizations which support AMS.AMS-02 is a particle detector designed for the direct, near-Earth detection of CRs coming from the Universe. The whole subdetectors set allows the identification of a large range of particles and antiparticles. The great exposure time together with its large acceptance allows the collection of unprecedented statistics, with over 230 000 million events registered so far.The AMS/LIP group actively participated in the conception and construction of the experiment with emphasis on AMS' Ring-Imaging Cherenkov Detector (RICH). One of its reconstruction algorithms for electric charge and velocity was developed by the group.The AMS experiment, unique in the current astroparticle physics context, opens a window of opportunity to participate in a great scientific challenge and constitutes an excellent platform for forming students. It is expected that the experiment stays in space for the lifespan of the space station (at least 2030), continuously collecting events at a rate of approximately 45 million per day. In addition, a setup upgrade in the AMS tracker is expected for early 2026 that will increase the detector’s acceptance by a factor of 3.AMS aims to shed light on some of the most fundamental questions in contemporary physics. Being the first scientific experiment dedicated to the detection of particles outside of Earth's atmosphere with such a large acceptance and long exposure time, AMS is a pioneer when it comes to the following topics: Search for antimatter in the universe: AMS detecting anti nuclei would be a strong evidence supporting the existence of Universe areas dominated by antimatter. The long exposure time will allow AMS to achieve a high sensitivity in its detection. Indirect dark matter (DM) detection: Evidence indicates that more than 90% Universe is composed of DM. Its nature is still unknown. AMS' capability of identifying the different CR particles and, in particular, the detection of positrons, antiprotons and in the near future antideuterons allow to seek for eventual anomalies in the different CR spectra. The AMS published spectrum of positrons, unequivocally indicate the existence of strong primary sources of positrons in Earth's neighbourhood, not excluding the existence of DM hypothesis. Cosmic-ray fluxes: The study of the origin and composition of CRs with the aim of characterizing the intergalactic medium and deepen theknowledge on the fluxes of both primary and secondary CRs. AMS has published the fluxes of elementary particles (protons, antiprotons, electrons and positrons) as well as CR nuclei such as He (and its isotope 3He), Ca, O, Be, B, N, Ne, Mg, S, Si, Fe, F, Na and Al. Temporal Variability of low energy cosmic rays: AMS also works as an exceptional intermediate energy CR observatory, continuously monitoring variations in the CR fluxes with a very fine temporal resolution CRs detected near earth cross the Sun's region of influence (heliosphere) and suffer modulation. Parker (1965) first described particle transport in the heliosphere in terms of solar phenomena. The AMS/LIP group developed activities on the 1D numerical solution of the transport equation and its correlation with solar observables. The group is involved in the study of time variability in CR fluxes and their temporal characterization.These variations allow us to not only characterize solar activity indirectly through the CR flux but also the effects of the solar magnetic field in the propagation of charged particles, allowing for the testing of solar modulation models and the relative importance of the processes these particles endure. A parametrization of propagation parameters was developed, as function of the sunspot number, that allows to predict the modulated fluxes of nuclei from H to N from MeV-GeV. Accurately predicting the CR flux in the heliosphere is crucial for human space flight, an effort that the AMS/LIP group strongly contributes to, as well as, for Solar Event Particle (SEP) detection, another threat for interplanetary travel. AMS data will allow to accurately estimate the absorbed dose by astronauts while on the ISS and during cruise phase.Relying in the RICH subdetector's velocity accuracy, the group is also involved in the study of the spectra of lighter isotopes such as D, 3He, 4He, 10Be and 9Be which are crucial to constrain CR propagation parameters in the Galaxy.AMS can explore it with unprecedented statistics and extends its detection range limit to the unexplored 10 GeV/n kinetic energy.

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Support under

Reforçar a investigação, o desenvolvimento tecnológico e a inovação

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