Study Of The Performance In Space Environment Of The Electromagnetic Calorimeter Of The Ams 02 Experiment

The AMS-02 experiment is a particle detector installed on the International Space Station (ISS) since May 2011, which measures the characteristics of the cosmic rays to bring answers to the problematics risen by the astroparticle physics since a few decades, in particular the study of dark matter and the search of antimatter. The phenomenological aspects of the physics of cosmic rays are reviewed in a first part. A second one describes the in-flight performances of the different subdetectors of AMS-02, in particular the electromagnetic calorimeter. It is shown, using particles at the ionizing minimum (MIPs), accounting for the main part of cosmic rays, that the calorimeter works as expected, and we find the same performances as on ground. This study is used to follow in time the evolution of the detector performances. It also allows to develop a charge estimator for the nuclei using the calorimeter. A third and final part, deals with the determination of the positronic fraction. The main difficulty of this measurement is to identify the positrons by rejecting the protons thanks to the characteristics of the showers in the calorimeter. After having defined variables relevant for this separation, we build an estimator using a multivariate analysis and Monte-Carlo simulations of electrons for the higher energies. Above 100 GeV, we obtain a rejection factor of about 10 000 at a 90% efficiency. After having estimated the charge confusion, this estimator, finally, allows us to determine the positronic ratio for the first 18 months of data and energies ranging from 1.5 to 350 GeV.

The 32nd International Conference on High Energy Physics belongs to the Rochester Conference Series, and is the most important international conference in 2004 on high energy physics. The proceedings provide a comprehensive review on the recent developments in experimental and theoretical particle physics. The latest results on Top, Higgs search, CP violation, neutrino mixing, pentaquarks, heavy quark mesons and baryons, search for new particles and new phenomena, String theory, Extra dimension, Black hole and Lattice calculation are discussed extensively. The topics covered include not only those of main interest to the high energy physics community, but also recent research and future plans. Contents: Neutrino Masses and MixingsQuark Matter and Heavy Ion CollisionsParticle Astrophysics and CosmologyElectroweak PhysicsQCD Hard InteractionsQCD Soft InteractionsComputational Quantum Field TheoryCP Violation, Rare Kaon Decay and CKMR&D for Future Accelerator and DetectorHadron Spectroscopy and ExoticsHeavy Quark Mesons and BaryonsBeyond the Standard ModelString Theory Readership: Experimental and theoretical physicists and graduate students in the fields of particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics and cosmology.Keywords:High Energy Physics;Particle Physics;Electroweak;QCD;Heavy Quark;Neutrino;Particle Astrophysics;Hadron Spectroscopy;CP Violation;Quark Matter;Future Accelerator

This second open access volume of the handbook series deals with detectors, large experimental facilities and data handling, both for accelerator and non-accelerator based experiments. It also covers applications in medicine and life sciences. A joint CERN-Springer initiative, the "Particle Physics Reference Library" provides revised and updated contributions based on previously published material in the well-known Landolt-Boernstein series on particle physics, accelerators and detectors (volumes 21A, B1,B2,C), which took stock of the field approximately one decade ago. Central to this new initiative is publication under full open access