Mainz 2014 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 100: Niederenergie kosmische Strahlung

T 100.6: Talk

Thursday, March 27, 2014, 18:05–18:20, P2

Measurement of the combined electron and positron flux with AMS-02 — •Valerio Vagelli, Karen Andeen, Wim de Boer, Iris Gebauer, Melanie Heil, Nikolai Nikonov, Daniel Schuckardt, and Stefan Zeissler — KIT Karlsruhe Institut of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer AMS-02 is a large acceptance cosmic ray detector which has been installed on the International Space Station ISS in May 2011, where it will continue to measure the fluxes of cosmic rays up to TeV energies for more than 10 years. More than 30 billion events have been collected by the instrument in the first two years of data taking. Among them, approximately 9 million electrons and positrons have been identified. The cosmic electron and positron spectrum was subject to intensive studies in the past years: it is very sensitive to the local astrophysical environment due to their peculiar energy losses with respect to the other cosmic ray nuclear species. Moreover the spectral features at energies higher than 100 GeV may contain signatures of a possible primary production of electrons and positrons by astrophysical sources or Dark Matter annihilation, as first indicated by the measurement of the positron fraction by PAMELA and later on AMS-02. In this contribution, the analysis techniques used in the combined electron plus positron energy spectrum measurement are reviewed and the preliminary spectrum up to 700 GeV is presented.