Antiprotons below 200 MeV in the interstellar medium: perspectives for observing exotic matter signatures

Recent data from CREAM seem to confirm early suggestions that primary cosmic ray (CR) spectra at few TeV/nucleon are harder than in the 10-100 GeV range. Also, helium and heavier nuclei spectra appear systematically harder than the proton fluxes at corresponding energies. We note here that if the measurements reflect intrinsic features in the interstellar fluxes (as opposed to local effects) appreciable modifications are expected in the sub-TeV range for the secondary yields,...

The latest years have seen steady progresses in WIMP dark matter (DM) searches, with hints of possible signals suggested by both direct and indirect detection experiments. Antiprotons can play a key role validating those interpretations since they are copiously produced by WIMP annihilations in the Galactic halo, and the secondary antiproton background produced by Cosmic Ray (CR) interactions is predicted with fair accuracy and matches the observed spectrum very well. Using t...

The flux of cosmic ray antiprotons from neutralino annihilations in the galactic halo is computed for a large sample of models in the MSSM (the Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model). We also revisit the problem of estimating the background of low-energy cosmic ray induced secondary antiprotons, taking into account their subsequent interactions (and energy loss) and the presence of nuclei in the interstellar matter. We consider a two-zone diffusion model, w...

The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) is an upcoming balloon mission to measure low-energy cosmic-ray antinuclei during at least three ~35-day Antarctic flights. With its large geometric acceptance and novel exotic atom-based particle identification, GAPS will detect ~500 cosmic antiprotons per flight and produce a precision cosmic antiproton spectrum in the kinetic energy range of ~0.07-0.21 GeV/n at the top of the atmosphere. With these high statistics extending to l...

The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) is designed to carry out indirect dark matter search by measuring low-energy cosmic-ray antiparticles. Below a few GeVs the flux of antiparticles produced by cosmic-ray collisions with the interstellar medium is expected to be very low and several well-motivated beyond-standard models predict a sizable contribution to the antideuteron flux. GAPS is planned to fly on a long-duration balloon over Antarctica in the austral summer of 2...

The general antiparticle spectrometer (GAPS) experiment is a proposed indirect dark matter search focusing on antiparticles produced by WIMP (weakly interacting massive particle) annihilation and decay in the Galactic halo. In addition to the very powerful search channel provided by antideuterons, GAPS has a strong capability to measure low-energy antiprotons (0.07 $\le$ E $\le$ 0.25 GeV) as dark matter signatures. This is an especially effective means for probing light dark ...

An excess of $\sim$10-20 GeV cosmic-ray antiprotons has been identified in the spectrum reported by the AMS-02 Collaboration. The systematic uncertainties associated with this signal, however, have made it difficult to interpret these results. In this paper, we revisit the uncertainties associated with the time, charge and energy-dependent effects of solar modulation, the antiproton production cross section, and interstellar cosmic-ray propagation. After accounting for these ...

A dramatic increase in the accuracy and statistics of space-borne cosmic ray (CR) measurements has yielded several breakthroughs over the last several years. The most puzzling is the rise in the positron fraction above ~10 GeV over the predictions of the propagation models assuming pure secondary production. The accuracy of the antiproton production cross section is critical for astrophysical applications and searches for new physics since antiprotons in CRs seem to hold the ...

Antiprotons are regarded as a powerful probe for Dark Matter (DM) indirect detection and indeed current data from \PAMELA\ have been shown to lead to stringent constraints. However, in order to exploit their constraining/discovery power properly, great attention must be put into effects (linked to their propagation in the Galaxy) which may be perceived as subleading but actually prove to be quite relevant. We revisit the computation of the astrophysical background and of the ...

The direct detection of annihilation products in cosmic rays offer an alternative way to search for dark matter particles candidates. Here we will see in particular that the study of the spectrum of antiproton and positrons offer good possibilities to perform this search and we will review our experimental effort in this direction.