AMS-02 (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer) is a multi-purpose particle physics detector that was deployed in the International Space Station (ISS) on May 19, 2011. The experiment was designed to measure the flux of cosmic rays with unprecedented precision, which allows to study the origin and propagation of cosmic rays in the Milky Way. The main scientific objectives of AMS are the search for dark matter and primordial antimatter. After 11 years of operations, AMS has collected more than 200 billion cosmic ray events and has provided precision measurements of electrons, positrons, protons, antiprotons and nuclei of helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, and iron, up to very high energies of the order of a TeV. AMS will operate till the end of the ISS planned for 2030, collecting enough statistics to detect antimatter and to explore new physical phenomena which cannot be studied with experiments on Earth.
The astroparticle physics groups of CIEMAT and IAC have participated in AMS since 1997 and 2003, respectively. Both groups have substantially contributed to the construction phase and the detector integrations and currently actively participate in the scientific exploitation of the AMS data.
The objective of the current research project is to continue the participation of the CIEMAT and IAC groups in the AMS experiment, during the next three years. The main activities will focus on detector operation and data analysis. The main objectives of the coordinated project are to obtain precision measurements of heavy nuclei, primordial antimatter, and the anisotropy of cosmic rays.
The project is complemented by additional objectives that will be developed independently in each of the subprojects.
In the case of the CIEMAT subproject, the objective is to continue the R&D program for future cosmic ray detectors CaloCube, which has developed the data acquisition system and the trigger for future scintillating detectors in space. The current project will adapt the system for its potential implementation in the HERD experiment which will be installed in the Chinese space station.
In the case of the IAC subproject, the objective is to continue with studies of gamma-ray astrophysics, to localize and study in more detail the cosmic ray sources detected with AMS, with the space-borne detector Fermi-LAT and the system of Cherenkov Telescopes MAGIC. We are also participating in the construction of two Cherenkov telescope arrays: 9 telescopes of small size named ASTRI mini-array at the Teide Observatory and 4 Large Size Telescopes (LST) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory. The IAC will participate in the commissioning of the new telescopes and will carry out joint observations with MAGIC to calibrate the instruments and obtain the first scientific results. Complementary observations with the optical and IR telescopes of the Canary Island Observatories will be carried out.
