A Magnetic Spectrometer with an acceptance of 100 m2 sr (AMS-100) is to be installed on a satellite and operated for 10+ years at Lagrange Point 2 (L2). The purpose of this magnetic spectrometer is to significantly extent the energy reach, geometrical acceptance and sensitivity to cosmic rays and cosmic anti matter of the present AMS-02 experiment on the International Space Station. With a geometrical acceptance of 100 m2 sr, a maximum detectable rigidity of 100 TV and a calorimeter with a depth of 70 radiation lengths and 4 nuclear interaction lengths AMS-100 will provide direct measurements of cosmic ray spectra up to the PeV scale, i.e. up to the cosmic ray knee. Compared to AMS-02 the sensitivity to cosmic anti-matter will be improved by a factor 1000. The energy reach for precision measurements of cosmic ray electrons, positrons and anti-protons will be increased by one order of magnitude compared to AMS-02, up the scale of 10 TeV.

The magnet design is based on new high temperature superconductors to build a large thin coil solenoid with a magnetic field of 1 Tesla to be operated at 50-60 Kelvin. The thin coil of the magnet will also act as a well localized converter for photons allowing in combination with the calorimeter precision measurements of TeV gamma rays with excellent angular and energy resolution with full sky coverage at any moment in time.

Due to the dipole-moment of the large solenoid AMS-100 can not be operated at low earth orbit.

AMS-100 Experiment at L2

Prof. S. Schael,

Dr. H. Gast, Dr. Th. Kirn, Dr. G. Schwering, Dr. Th. Siedenburg, Dr. Schultz von Dratzig

Both the US space agency NASA and the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation  CAST have announced rockets (SLS Block 2 and Long March 9) for the time 2025-2030 which can lift 130 tons to low earth orbit and 45-50 tons to L2. This will open a new window for particle astrophysics and TeV gamma astronomy. In order to have a detector concept ready for a launch in 2030 the work on the design of the instrument has to start already now.

A comparison of the key performance parameters of AMS-02 and AMS-100 is given below:

The most recent description of AMS-100 can be found here [1]. The first ideas for AMS-100 were presented by Prof. S. Schael at the AMS Days at La Palma in May 2018 [4][3]. At that time with a superconducting magnet operated with liquid helium at 4K. Soon after it became clear, that at L2 a high temperature superconducting magnet could be operated in thermal equilibrium at 50-60 Kelvin without any consumables. This concept was first shown by Prof. Schael in October [2] 2018.

[1] S. Schael, „AMS-100, A Magnetic Spectrometer at L2“, NextGAPES Workshop, Moscow, June 2019 (PDF).

[2] S. Schael, „New Results from the AMS Experiment on the ISS“, WE-Heraeus Symposium,               Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, 29.-31. October 2018 (PDF).

[3] S.Schael, „First six years of AMS on the ISS and future perspectives“,  Colloquium MPI for Physics, Munich, April 2018 (PDF).

[4] S. Schael, „Next Generation AMS“, AMS Days, La Palma, Spain, April 2018 (PDF).

The main detector elements of AMS-100 are shown in the XY- and ZY-Plane below:

The functions of these elements are shown in the radial cross-section of the barrel below: