The AMS-02 experiment is a state of the art particle physics detector in space. After the launch with the Space Shuttle it is designed to measure cosmic ray spectra on the ISS for a period of 18 years. The main scientific focus is the search for anti matter and dark matter.


In order to detect dark matter one strategy is to look for relic annihilations in the galactic halo, which might

produce a detectable access of antiprotons or positrons in cosmic rays.


AMS is build by an international collaboration of 500 physicists from 56 institutes from 16 countries.

AMS Experiment on the ISS

Prof. S. Schael,

Dr. H. Gast, Dr. Th. Kirn, Dr. G. Schwering, Dr. Th. Siedenburg


Open Positions





Bachelor-, Master and PhD Thesis


AMS Subdetectors build
at RWTH Aachen:


TRD



ACC



TAS



  1. 1.Publications

  2. 2.Talks

  3. 3.Thesis


Related Web-Pages

  1. •AMS at CERN

  2. •AMS at NASA

 

This picture shows an exploded view of the AMS-02 Experiment. The I. Physics Institute of  the RWTH Aachen is responsible for the Transition Radiation Detector (TRD), the Anti-Coincidence-Counters (ACC) and the Tracker Laser Alignment System (TAS). The AMS-02
permanent magnet was integrated into the AMS-02 support structure at RWTH Aachen

University in 2010.


Bibliography:

  1. (1)Aguilar, M. and others, „AMS on ISS, Construction of a particle physics detector on the International Space Station“ , submitted to Nucl. Instrum. Meth. 2005

With the AMS-01 flight in 1998 on board of the Space Shuttle Discovery it was demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to operate a modern particle physics detector in space. The key element of the AMS-02 experiment is a permanent magnet which generates in a cylindrical volume of 0.6 cubic meter a magnetic field of 0.15 Tesla. Inside this volume a high precision double sided silicon strip detector measures the trajectories of charged particles at 7 planes with a precision of 8 micron per point in the coordinate perpendicular to the track. Two outer planes, one above the TRD and one in-front of the ECAL complete the silicon tracker. These precision measurements determine particle momentum and charge up to the TeV scale. The detector is completed on top by a transition radiation detector (TRD) and on the bottom by a ring image cherenkov counter (RICH) and an electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) for particle identification. The expected performance of AMS-02 should improve in all relevant aspects the previous measurements by several orders of magnitude.


          

AMS-02 was launched on 16. May 2011 with

the Space Shuttle Endeavour to the

International Space Station.