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September 24, 2025Open Access

Antinuclei Signatures of Dark Matter and the GAPS Experiment

Key Points

The GAPS experiment aims to measure low-energy cosmic antinuclei, which could indicate dark matter presence.
Predictions suggest annihilation of dark matter may generate antinuclei like antihelium and antideuterons in detectable amounts.
Background interference from astrophysical sources is significantly lower than the predicted signals from dark matter candidates.
Current preparations in Antarctica will facilitate GAPS' first flight in late 2025 or early 2026.

Abstract

GAPS is a long-duration balloon experiment designed to measure the flux of low-energy (< 0.25 GeV/n) cosmic antinuclei as signatures of dark matter. Many well-motivated theories for dark matter predict annihilation or decay channels that can produce final state hadrons which may include antiprotons and antineutrons that may coalesce to form low-energy antideuterons or antihelium. The background for complex antinuclei from standard astrophysical sources is orders of magnitude below the predicted flux from viable dark matter candidates at the low-energy range for which GAPS is optimized. The GAPS instrument is currently assembled in Antarctica and stands ready for its first flight during the December 2025/January 2026 launch season. This proceeding will cover the anticipated science impact GAPS will have on the current landscape of cosmic antinuclei measurements as well as the instrument design and novel detection technique employed by the experiment.

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