2008/10/20 by M. Boezio, Boezio, M., V. Bonvicini +114 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex) #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph #hep-ex
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0810.3508
Parallel talk at ICHEP08, Philadelphia, USA, July 2008. 5 pages, LaTeX, 3 eps figures
arxiv created 2008/10/20 · openalex publication_date 2008/10/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
On the 15th of June 2006, the PAMELA satellite-borne experiment was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome and it has been collecting data since July 2006. The apparatus comprises a time-of-flight system, a silicon-microstrip magnetic spectrometer, a silicon-tungsten electromagnetic calorimeter, an anticoincidence system, a shower tail counter scintillator and a neutron detector. The combination of these devices allows precision studies of the charged cosmic radiation to be conducted over a wide energy range (100 MeV - 100's GeV) with high statistics. The primary scientific goal is the measurement of the antiproton and positron energy spectrum in order to search for exotic sources, such as dark matter particle annihilations. PAMELA is also searching for primordial antinuclei (anti-helium), and testing cosmic-ray propagation models through precise measurements of the antiparticle energy spectrum and precision studies of light nuclei and their isotopes. We review the status of the apparatus and present preliminary results concerning antiparticle measurements and dark-matter indirect searches.