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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik
T 99: Kosmische Strahlung 7
T 99.1: Talk
Friday, March 13, 2009, 14:00–14:15, M118
Cosmic-ray spectroscopy with the balloon-borne PEBS detector. — •Henning Gast, Roman Greim, Thomas Kirn, Gregorio Roper Yearwood, and Stefan Schael — I. Physikalisches Institut B, RWTH Aachen University
The Positron Electron Balloon Spectrometer (PEBS) is being developed to perform cosmic-ray spectroscopy from the platform of a high-altitude balloon. The main goal of the experiment is a precise measurement of the cosmic-ray positron flux, as positrons may contribute to the solution of the dark matter puzzle, in combination with other approaches. For example, pairwise annihilation of neutralinos, predicted by supersymmetric extensions to the standard model of particle physics, may leave a distinct feature in the cosmic-ray positron spectrum.
PEBS is designed to have a large acceptance of 0.4 m2sr. A superconducting magnet creating a field of 0.8 T and a tracking device consisting of scintillating fibers of 250 µm diameter with silicon photomultiplier readout will allow rigidity and charge determination up to O(100 GeV). The dominant proton background is suppressed by the combination of an electromagnetic calorimeter and a transition radiation detector.
An overview of the detector concept is given. Then, the physics case for PEBS is presented together with projections for the performance of the various subdetectors needed for particle identification and energy determination.