AMS2
Home page of the Experiment: http://ams.pg.infn.it/ams-italy/ams.htm
http://ams.cern.ch/AMS/ams_homepage.html
AMS-02 CERN http://cyclo.mit.edu/~bmonreal/frames.what.html
AMS for the general public
The high statistics measurement of the CR in
space, enabled for the first time the study of the behaviour of
primary CR near Earth in the rigidity interval from 0,1 Gev to
200 GeV, at all longitudes and latitudes up to 51.7o.
Search of antimatter requires the capability to identify with the
highest degree of confidence, the type of particle traversing the
experiment together with the absolute value and the sign of its
electric charge.
This can be achieved through repeated measurements of the
particle momentum (solid state spectrometer based on a 6
layer Silicon Tracker located in a permanent magnet),
velocity (Time of Flight, Transition Radiation detectors,
Cerenkov detectors) and energy deposition (Ionization
detectors). AMS consist of a large acceptance magnetic
spectrometer (about 0.6 m2sr)
surrounding a six layer high precision Silicon Tracker and
surrounded by a Time of Flight scintillator system (ToF).
A scintillator anticounter system, located on the magnet inner
wall, one Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT)
located below and above the magnet, and a solid state Ring
Imaging Cherenkov detector, complete the experiment. While on the
Space Station the complete AMS experiment will operate for three
years, a reduced configuration (baseline) has been
deployed on the precursor flight. The baseline configuration
included a permanent magnet, the Anticounter and the Time of
Flight systems, the Silicon Tracker and an Areogel Threshold
Cherenkov counter. By combining the various measurement it is
possible to determine the type of particle traversing the magnet
and/or to distinguish interesting particles from background with
an accuracy of one part in ten billions. The search for dark
matter will be based on the capability of detecting anomalies in
the spectrum of antiprotons, electrons and gamma rays particles.
Gamma rays are detected by their conversions in e+e-
pairs on the top part of the experiment.