Project Title

GAPS (General AntiParticle Spectrometer) Experiment: A Search for Dark Matter Using Low Energy Antiprotons and Antideuterons

Summary

Event Number:
A-132-M
NASA / NSF Agreement

Program Director:
Dr. Vladimir Papitashvili

ASC POC/Implementer:
John Rand / Kaija Webster / Chad Naughton

Principal Investigator(s)

Charles James Hailey
chuckh@astro.columbia.edu
Columbia University
New York, New York

Location

Supporting Stations: McMurdo Station
Research Locations: McMurdo Long Duration Balloon (LDB) Facility

Description

The General AntiParticle Spectrometer (GAPS) balloon-borne science experiment is designed to search for massive dark matter particles in our galaxy. The annihilation of dark matter particles with each other in the Galaxy leads to antimatter production. The GAPS experiment is optimized to detect low energy (LE) antideuterons. Because LE antideuterons are extremely difficult to produce by conventional astrophysical processes, the detection of LE antideuterons is a smoking gun signature of dark matter. GAPS can also detect LE antihelium, and candidate antihelium events have been reported. GAPS will also open new discovery space by detecting LE antiprotons. These are a guaranteed signature as they are produced by conventional astrophysical processes. An observed antiproton excess could arise from dark matter annihilation or primordial black hole evaporation.

Field Season Overview

The GAPS instrument and team will deploy to McMurdo Station in early-November 2024. The instrument will be assembled and readied for flight at the McMurdo Station Long Duration Balloon (LDB) facility with a target launch in early December.

Target duration for flight is 30 days with a minimum of 10 days. This would permit researchers to validate the GAPS antimatter detection concept, allow for fresh discovery space with the first detection of low energy antiprotons in the GAPS energy band, and permit better understanding of ultimate sensitivity for antideuterons and antihelium through accurate characterization of in-flight backgrounds, and allow for completion of an initial search for these antimatter species. Target float altitude is >115,000-feet. Payload termination and recovery would ideally occur in January or early February.

The GAPS project was approved as a program of three flights with a total float duration of around 100 days. Hence, recovery of the detectors, after the first flight, is an absolute priority. Their value is approximately $5 million. COMAIR delivery back to the United States has been requested for the detectors, as they are sensitive to humidity and would be ruined by surface transport via the ocean. Data drives must also be recovered, as bandwidth will not permit all data to be transmitted to ground. Two to three GAPS team members will participate in instrument recovery, along with personnel from the NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility and Antarctic Support Contract. If GAPS cannot be flown and subsequently transported north this season, we have requested that it be stored in a dry, cold environment at a temperature above -55C.

Deploying Team Members