Are the AMS-02 antihelium candidate events real? · revision history
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Accepted · first revision · record
- Title
- Are the AMS-02 antihelium candidate events real?
- Plain
- The AMS-02 detector team has spoken of a handful of possible antihelium nuclei, which ordinary cosmic-ray collisions should almost never make. The events have not been published in a refereed paper.
- Precise
- AMS-02 has reported in conference talks a few candidate antihelium-3 and antihelium-4 events, while predicted secondary production gives far less than one antihelium-4 event in the exposure. Decide whether any candidate is a genuine antinucleus rather than a misidentified background, and if so identify its source (dark matter, antimatter domains, or underestimated coalescence production).
- Settled by
- A refereed AMS-02 analysis with background estimates, or independent detection by a separate experiment such as the GAPS balloon instrument.
- Kind
- well-posed
- Answer type
- identification
- References
- (empty)
- Literature status
- open
- Status note
- As of 2026 the candidates remain unpublished in the refereed literature.
- Posed since
- (empty)