Indirect Dark Matter Search with Antideuterons: Progress and Future Prospects for General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS)

Abstract

We report on recent accelerator testing of a prototype general antiparticle spectrometer (GAPS). GAPS is a novel approach for indirect dark matter searches that exploits the antideuterons produced in neutralino-neutralino annihilations. Many supersymmetry models, as well as other models based on extra dimensions, predict a primary antideuteron flux from dark matter annihilation that is much greater than the secondary and tertiary background sources at low energies. The GAPS method involves capturing antiparticles in a target material into excited energy states. The X-rays that are emitted as the antiparticle cascades to lower energy states before the exotic atom decays serve as a fingerprint that uniquely identifies the mass of the captured antiparticle. This approach provides large area and field of view in addition to excellent background rejection capability. Analysis of the performance of a prototype GAPS tested in an antiproton beam at the KEK accelerator in Japan in 2004 and 2005 are presented.