# The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-02

AMS-02 on the International Space Station (ISS).
A 20 GeV electron in the AMS-02 event display. This electron has been registered on May 19th 2011, directly after the installation of AMS-02. It is one of the first cosmic ray particles measured by AMS-02.
Melanie Heil, PhD student at ETP, at the TEE position in the AMS-POCC (Payload Operation and Control Center) at CERN

Project

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a state-of-the-art particle physics detector designed to operate as an external module on the International Space Station. On May 16th 2011, AMS-02 was brought to the International Space Station (ISS) with the very last flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. Data taking began immediately after AMS-02 was mounted ion the ISS on May 19th 2011.

AMS-02 is the most advanced particle detector ever to be brought into space. With an expected lifetime of 20 years AMS-02 will be operated until the end of ISS operation.  It uses the unique environment of space to study the universe and its origin by searching for antimatter and dark matter while performing precision measurements of cosmic rays composition and flux. The AMS-02 observations will help answer fundamental questions, such as "What makes up the universe's invisible mass?" or "What happened to the primordial antimatter?" One of the prime physics goals of AMS-02 is the search for the elusive Dark Matter, an unknown form of matter, which makes up about 83% of the mass of our Universe.

ETP contribution

KIT has been involved in AMS-02 since 2002. Together with MIT and RWTH Aachen, Karlsruhe built the Transition Radiation Detector (TRD), one of the prime instruments to identify positrons among the numerous cosmic ray protons. Since the beginning of AMS-02 data taking the KIT AMS-02 group contributes significantly to the monitoring and operation of the TRD in the AMS-02 Payload Operation and Control Center (POCC) at CERN.

Currenlty KIT is a major contributor to the analysis of the positron fraction. Several methods for hadron-lepton separation have been developed at KIT in the framework of this analysis.

For further information about AMS-02 please have a look at the official AMS-02 Homepage.

Homepage der Young Investigator Group "Cosmic Ray Transport Models for Dark Matter Searches with AMS-02 "

Recent publications concerning AMS:

 Autor bzw. Beitrag des EKP Typ Titel Nummer und Download Zeissler, Stefan Doktorarbeit Search for anisotropies in the arrival directions of charged cosmic rays with AMS-02 ETP-KA/2018-1 Benz, Belinda Bachelorarbeit Studies for Dipole Anisotropy Searches in the Arrival Directions of Cosmic Rays with AMS-02 IEKP-BACHELOR-KA/2017-16 Lang, Jannis Bachelorarbeit Multivariate Analysemethoden zurAbschätzung der Performanz von Experimenten auf der Internationalen Raumstation IEKP-BACHELOR/2016-32 Weinreuter, Matthias Doktorarbeit On the Correlation between Cosmic Ray Arrival Directions and the Sources of Galactic Cosmic Rays IEKP-KA/2016-32 Bentele, Rosemarie Diplomarbeit Constraining the possible pulsar or dark matter origin of the energetic positron population in cosmic rays with AMS-02 and Fermi-LAT IEKP-KA/2015-21 Block, Fabian Bachelorarbeit Statistische Methoden zur Suche nach Anisotropien im Fluss der kosmischen Strahlung mit AMS-02 IEKP-Bachelor-KA/2015-04 Merx, Carmen Diplomarbeit Search for Anisotropies in the Flux of Cosmic Rays with AMS-02 IEKP-KA/2015-12 Nieslony, Michael Bachelorarbeit Studien zur Suche nach Anisotropien im Positronenfluss mit AMS-02 IEKP-BACHELOR-KA/2014-19 Keller, Florian Diplomarbeit Vorhersagen für die Anisotropien im leptonischen Fluss der kosmischen Strahlung IEKP-KA/2014-13 Vagelli, Valerio Doktorarbeit Measurement of the cosmic $e^+ + e^-$ Flux from 0.5 GeV to 1 TeV with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) on the International Space Station IEKP-KA/2014-23