Title of Presentation: The General Antiparticle Spectrometer Experiment: Search for Supersymmetric Dark Matter and Primordial Black Holes
Primary (Corresponding) Author: Chuck Hailey,
Organization of Primary Author:
Abstract: We present a novel means to search for dark matter (DM) and primordial black holes (PBH). The general antiparticle spectrometer experiment (GAPS) detects supersymmetric dark matter (SUSY DM) and primordial black holes (PBH) through their antideuteron signature. The antideuterons are produced in annihilation of SUSY DM in the galactic halo or in the evaporation of PBH. The detection of the antideuterons is effected with an entirely novel approach. The antideuterons are slowed down and captured by target atoms, forming antimatter ("exotic") atoms. The exotic atoms deexcite by emitting atomic X-rays, and a pion fireball when the antideuteron enters the nucleus. This signature of the antideuteron is extremely clean and permits identification of antideuterons with high fidelity in an otherwise high background environment. The detection of antideuterons is thus a potent probe of exotic physics. In part of the SUSY parameter space, the antideuteron search provides unique discovery space for the detection of SUSY DM, and in other parts of the SUSY parameter space it complements direct underground detection or indirect gamma-ray detection, such as on GLAST. In the latter case the combination of experiments will much more tightly constrain the properties of DM than an individual experiment. GAPS will provide the most stringent limits on PBH. All of the above can be accomplished on a balloon-borne platform, at a fraction of the cost of underground DM experiments. The GAPS concept has been confirmed in NASA-funded accelerator experiments at KEK in