Ponente
Descripción
The Gamma-Ray and Antimatter Survey (GRAMS) project is a next-generation MeV-scale gamma-ray and antimatter experiment. The detector consists of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC), the largest of its kind in an astrophysics experiment. Surrounding the LArTPC are plastic scintillator bars for charged particle time-of-flight (TOF) measurement. The LArTPC is the main detector and will serve as both a Compton telescope and 3D charged particle tracker, while the TOF will help identify heavy charged particles and nuclei. The detector design facilitates the study of a wide variety of physics, from sources both known and beyond the Standard Model.
One of the largest open questions in physics is the nature of dark matter, which gravitational observations suggest comprises nearly 27% of the mass-energy in the universe. Many dark matter models have been proposed, and GRAMS is positioned to empirically test a variety of them, in addition to studying astrophysical sources. For example, predictions from dark matter models such as antimatter from dark matter annihilation and gamma-rays from sterile neutrino radiative decays. Additionally, the GRAMS Compton telescope functionality will study gamma-rays, including those from the diffuse background, cosmic-ray accelerators, and nuclear transitions. The presentation will discuss the detector design, physics sensitivities, and experiment timeline.
