2025/01/07 by F. Dimiccoli, Dimiccoli, Francesco, F. M. Follega +1
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cold Fusion and Nuclear Reactions #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex) #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2501.03966
openalex publication_date 2025/01/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Studying the isotopic composition of cosmic-rays (CRs) provides crucial insights into the galactic environment and helps improve existing propagation models. Special attention is given to the secondary-to-primary ratios of light isotopic components in CRs, as these measurements can offer complementary data compared to traditional secondary-to-primary ratios like B/C. Recently, a precision measurement of the Deuterium (D) abundance in CR in the 2-21 GV rigidity range provided by the AMS02 experiment unexpectedly detected an excess of D with respect to its expected secondary nature, opening the field for new measurements at high rigidity to determine how the spectrum evolves and whether there is confirmation of a primary or primary plus secondary origin. While there are theoretical models that attempt to explain this excess, the experimental uncertainties on D production cross-sections and on CR propagation models remain significant, and only new and precise measurements can dissipate existing doubts. In this work we review the current experimental scenario and we propose a dedicated experiment able to extend the D abundance measurement up to 100 GeV/nucl without the need of a magnetic spectrometer, using a multiple scattering based technique for the measurement of particle momentum. The expected performances of the proposed detector were assessed through a dedicated simulation using the GEANT4 package, and its role in the current particle physics scenario is discussed.