A. M. Galper

Measurement of the flux of primary cosmic ray antiprotons with energies of 60 MeV to 350 GeV in the PAMELA experiment

It is interesting to measure the antiproton galactic component in cosmic rays in order to study the mechanisms by which particles and antiparticles are generated and propagate in the Galaxy and to search for new sources of, e.g., annihilation or decay of dark matter hypothetical particles. The antiproton spectrum and the ratio of the fluxes of primary cosmic ray antiprotons to protons with energies of 60 MeV to 350 GeV found from the data obtained from June 2006 to January 2010 in the PAMELA experiment are presented. The usage of the advanced data processing method based on the data classification mathematical model made it possible to increase statistics and analyze the region of higher energies than in the earlier works.

Measurement of Boron and Carbon Fluxes in Cosmic Rays with the Pamela Experiment

The propagation of cosmic rays inside our galaxy plays a fundamental role in shaping their injection spectra into those observed at Earth. One of the best tools to investigate this issue is the ratio of fluxes for secondary and primary species. The boron-to-carbon (B/C) ratio, in particular, is a sensitive probe to investigate propagation mechanisms. This paper presents new measurements of the absolute fluxes of boron and carbon nuclei, as well as the B/C ratio, from the PAMELA space experiment. The results span the range 0.44 - 129 GeV/n in kinetic energy for data taken in the period July 2006 - March 2008.

OBSERVATIONS OF THE 2006 DECEMBER 13 AND 14 SOLAR PARTICLE EVENTS IN THE 80 MeV n–1-3 GeV n–1 RANGE FROM SPACE WITH THE PAMELA DETECTOR

We present the space spectrometer PAMELA observations of proton and helium fluxes during the December 13 and 14, 2006 solar particle events. This is the first direct measurement of the solar energetic particles in space with a single instrument in the energy range from

THE DISCOVERY OF GEOMAGNETICALLY TRAPPED COSMIC-RAY ANTIPROTONS

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Eye light flashes on the mir space station

80 MeV/n up to

MEASUREMENT OF THE ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION OF HYDROGEN AND HELIUM NUCLEI IN COSMIC RAYS WITH THE PAMELA EXPERIMENT

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PAMELA and indirect dark matter searches

3 GeV/n. In the event of December 13 measured energy spectra of solar protons and helium were compared with results obtained by neutron monitors and other detectors. Our measurements show a spectral behaviour different from those derived from the neutron monitor network. No satisfactory analytical fitting was found for the energy spectra. During the first hours of the December 13 event solar energetic particles spectra were close to the exponential form demonstrating rather significant temporal evolution. Solar He with energy up to ~1 GeV/n was recorded on December 13. In the event of December 14 energy of solar protons reached ~600 MeV whereas maximum energy of He was below 100 MeV/n. The spectra were slightly bended in the lower energy range and preserved their form during the second event. Difference in the particle flux appearance and temporal evolution in these two events may argue for a special conditions leading to acceleration of solar particles up to relativistic energies.

The PAMELA experiment in space

The existence of a significant flux of antiprotons confined to Earths magnetosphere has been considered in several theoretical works. These antiparticles are produced in nuclear interactions of energetic cosmic rays with the terrestrial atmosphere and accumulate in the geomagnetic field at altitudes of several hundred kilometers. A contribution from the decay of albedo antineutrons has been hypothesized in analogy to proton production by neutron decay, which constitutes the main source of trapped protons at energies above some tens of MeV. This Letter reports the discovery of an antiproton radiation belt around the Earth. The trapped antiproton energy spectrum in the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region has been measured by the PAMELA experiment for the kinetic energy range 60-750 MeV. A measurement of the atmospheric sub-cutoff antiproton spectrum outside the radiation belts is also reported. PAMELA data show that the magnetospheric antiproton flux in the SAA exceeds the cosmic-ray antiproton flux by three orders of magnitude at the present solar minimum, and exceeds the sub-cutoff antiproton flux outside radiation belts by four orders of magnitude, constituting the most abundant source of antiprotons near the Earth.

TRAPPED PROTON FLUXES AT LOW EARTH ORBITS MEASURED BY THE PAMELA EXPERIMENT

The phenomenon of light flashes (LF) in eyes for people in space has been investigated onboard Mir. Data on particles hitting the eye have been collected with the SilEye detectors, and correlated with human observations. It is found that a nucleus in the radiation environment of Mir has roughly a 1% probability to cause an LF, whereas the proton probability is almost three orders of magnitude less. As a function of LET, the LF probability increases above 10 keV/micrometer, reaching about 5% at around 50 keV/micrometer.

Measurements of Cosmic-Ray Hydrogen and Helium Isotopes with the PAMELA experiment

The satellite-borne experiment PAMELA has been used to make new measurements of cosmic ray H and He isotopes. The isotopic composition was measured between 100 and 600 MeV/n for hydrogen and between 100 and 900 MeV/n for helium isotopes over the 23rd solar minimum from 2006 July to 2007 December. The energy spectrum of these components carries fundamental information regarding the propagation of cosmic rays in the galaxy which are competitive with those obtained from other secondary to primary measurements such as B/C.