GAPS: A Novel Indirect Search for Dark Mater

The General Anti-Particle Spectrometer is a balloon-born instrument currently under development, with an engineering flight planned for 2011 and a first science flight following in 2014. GAPS will conduct a search for antideuterons in the cosmic ray spectrum below 0.3 GeV/n in energy. If the DM particle is a suppersymmetric neutraleno, previous theoretical work has predicted a much enhanced low-energy anti-deuteron flux beyond that predicted purely by secondary production from cosmic ray propagation. Thus, antideuterons provide a background-free channel to search for evidence of DM, unlike other cosmic-ray antimatter species (p-bar , e+). GAPS will use a large acceptance, high detection efficiency payload flown on an LDB or ULDB-class balloon. The instrument will use a novel exotic atom detection technique not needing a magnet. GAPS will thus have a significantly larger total acceptance than other instruments.