Thesis

Cosmic-ray isotopic composition measurements with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station

• Call:

  PT-CERN Call 2022/2

• Academic Year:

  2022

• Domain:

  Astroparticle Physics

• Supervisor:

  Fernando Barao

• Co-Supervisor:

  Mercedes Paniccia

• Institution:

  Instituto Superior Técnico (Universidade de Lisboa)

• Host Institution:

  Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas

• Abstract:

  LIP has been part of the AMS collaboration since 1997, having actively partici- pated in the development and exploitation of phase 1 and 2 magnetic spectrome- ters deployed on the space shuttle Discovery in 1998 and on the international space station since 2011, respectively. The huge amount of data accumulated by the AMS experiment allows the study of the isotopes present in cosmic rays, of different nuclei and some presenting low fractions. Their secondary origin, as a result of the inelastic interaction of primary cosmic rays with interstellar matter, contributes to the study of cosmic ray propagation in the galaxy. In this thesis we propose to study the isotopes of hydrogen (Z=1) and boron (Z=5) nuclei, up to a kinetic energy per nucleon of about 10 Gev/n. The results envisaged in the thesis will greatly improve current measurements. Moreover, they will allow the study of their temporal variability at different times of solar activity and their correlation with it.