Ponente
Descripción
Measurements of clock isotopes, particularly that of the Be-10/Be-9 ratio, can be used to provide unique information on galactic cosmic ray propagation. The High Energy Light Isotope eXperiment (HELIX) is a balloon-borne magnet spectrometer designed to measure cosmic ray isotopes with an event-by-event mass resolution of 3%. The experiment aims to improve the statistics and extend measurements of beryllium isotopes up to 10 GeV/n. HELIX measures the velocity of incident cosmic rays using time-of-flight scintillators and an aerogel ring-imaging Cherenkov detector. Housed within a 1 Tesla superconducting magnet is a drift chamber tracker, which is used to measure the magnetic rigidity of incident cosmic rays. In the boreal spring of 2024, HELIX underwent a successful engineering flight from Sweden, landing just over six days later in Northern Canada from where it was safely recovered. We will discuss the design of the payload, an overview of its first engineering flight, and the current analysis and refurbishment efforts.
