Speaker
Description
The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) is a balloon-borne experiment designed to perform
low-energy cosmic-ray antinuclei measurements searching for indirect signatures of dark matter.
A wide range of well-motivated dark matter models predicts antideuteron and antihelium fluxes
about two orders of magnitude above the expected astrophysical background below 250 MeV/n.
Thanks to a novel identification technique based on the formation of an exotic
atom and its de-excitation and decay, GAPS will achieve an unprecedented
sensitivity for low-energy antideuteron and antihelium nuclei fluxes.
The GAPS experiment will perform three long-duration balloon flights over
Antarctica, the first of which is planned for the 2024/2025 Austral summer. The experimental
apparatus consists of a Si(Li) tracker surrounded by a time-of-flight system made of plastic
scintillator paddles. This contribution will illustrate the scientific potential of
the GAPS experiment and its impact on indirect dark matter searches.
Then, the final phases of the integration, calibration, and the results of the system's ground tests
will be discussed in view of the launch from the Mc Murdo Antarctic base in December 2024.
