Dieter Renker’s scientific contributions

Antiprotons are produced in interactions of primary cosmic rays with earth’s exosphere, where a fraction of them will be confined in the geomagnetic field in the inner van Allen Belt. The antiproton-to-proton flux ratio predicted by theory is in good agreement with recent results from the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) published by the PAMELA collaboration. We have designed the AFIS (Antiproton Flux in Space) project in order to extend the measurable range of antiprotons towards the low-energy region. In scope of this project a small antiproton detector consisting of scintillating fibers and silicon photomultipliers is being developed as payload for a CubeSat traversing the SAA in Low Earth Orbit. For the proof of concept we have built a prototype called ’’CubeZero’’ which completed its first test using pion and proton beams at PSI, Switzerland. Our primary goal was to investigate on the performance of tracking and Bragg peak identification in hardware and software. Analysis of detector performance based on data taken during this beam test is presented in this talk.

Since the first observation of geomagnetically trapped antiprotons by the PAMELA experiment and the new results on the positron excess by the AMS-02 experiment, the creation and transport of antimatter in the Earth’s upper atmosphere attracts more and more attention both at theoretical and experimental side. For this reason the AFIS experiment was initiated to measure the flux of low energetic antiprotons in the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). We developed an active target detector made from scintillating fibers connected to silicon photomultipliers which allows to detect antiprotons in the energy interval of about 30 MeV-100 MeV. The stopping curve of incoming antiprotons (Bragg peak) and the signal of outgoing pions created from the annihilation, are used for particle identification as well as triggering. We plan to implement this detector on a 3 unit cubesat satellite in the framework the ’Move2Warp’ mission, which is carried out as a student project by the Technische Universitaet Muenchen.

High-energy cosmic rays interact with Earth’s upper atmosphere and produce antiprotons, which can be trapped in Earth’s magnetic field. The Antiproton Flux in Space (AFIS) Mission will measure the flux of trapped antiprotons with energies less than 100 MeV aboard the nanosatellite MOVE 2. An active-target tracking detector comprised of scintillating plastic fibers and silicon photomultipliers is already under construction at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen. As a precursor to the space-bound mission, a prototype version of the detector will be launched aboard a balloon from Kiruna, Sweden as part of the REXUS/BEXUS student program by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Named AFIS-P, it will be used to measure the low-energy part of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies less than 100 MeV-per-nucleon. Spectrometers in previous balloon missions were not sensitive in this low-energy region. Thus AFIS-P will deliver unprecedented data, while simultaneously allowing us to field-test the AFIS detector.

The Antiproton Flux in Space experiment (AFIS) is a novel particle detector comprised of silicon photomultipliers and scintillating plastic fibers. Its purpose is to measure the trapped antiproton flux in low Earth orbit. To test the detector and the data acquisition system, a prototype detector will be flown aboard a high altitude research balloon as part of the REXUS/BEXUS program by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). This talk presents the on-board data handling system and the ground support equipment of AFIS-P. It will also highlight the data handling algorithms developed and used for the mission.