Lecture by Samuel Ting from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Nobel Prize

11/04/2016 2016 Series of Lectures on Astrophysics and Cosmology: science of the cosmos, science in the cosmos Lecture: "The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station" Speaker: Prof. Samuel Ting Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States Synopsis There are two types of cosmic rays that reach Earth from outer space. The first type are electrically neutral (photons and neutrinos), whose study using spaceborne, ground-based and underground telescopes and detectors has contributed greatly to our understanding of the Universe. The second type of cosmic rays carry charge and mass and are absorbed in the Earth’s atmosphere. Their study calls for a precision magnetic spectrometer located in space, beyond the atmosphere, to identify their mass, electrical charge, energy and directionality. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a precision particle physics detector deployed on the International Space Station in May 2011, which in its first four years measured 76 billion cosmic rays. The precision of the detector and its ability to measure and distinguish cosmic atomic nuclei have changed our understanding of the properties of charged cosmic rays. Bio notes Samuel Ting received the 1976 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the J particle at Brookhaven National Laboratory (United States), one of many awards and honors bestowed on him in his research career. His seminal results include the observation of nuclear anti-matter (the anti-deuteron) and a long series of precision studies that have demonstrated the validity of key aspects of the Standard Model of elementary particles. He also developed the first large superconducting magnet (2 tons) for spaceborne research and has demonstrated separation of helium isotopes in space. He currently leads a fifteen-nation collaboration involving some 500 physicists and engineers to use the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory to probe fundamental questions of cosmology and elementary particle physics, including the origin of cosmic rays, the nature of dark matter and the search for traces of primordial anti-matter.