Astrophysics with the AMS-02 experiment

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), whose final version AMS-02 is to be installed on the International Space Station (ISS) for at least 3 years, is a detector designed to measure charged cosmic ray spectra with energies up to the TeV region and with high energy photon detection capability up to a few hundred GeV, using state-of-the-art particle identification techniques. Following the successful flight of the detector prototype (AMS-01) aboard the space shuttle, AMS-02 is expected to provide a significant improvement on the current knowledge of the elemental and isotopic composition of hadronic cosmic rays due to its long exposure time (minimum of 3 years) and large acceptance (0.5 m2sr) which will enable it to collect a total statistics of more than 1010 nuclei. Detector capabilities for charge, velocity and mass identification, estimated from ion beam tests and detailed Monte Carlo simulations, are presented. Relevant issues in cosmic ray astrophysics addressed by AMS-02, including the test of cosmic ray propagation models, galactic confinement times and the influence of solar cycles on the local cosmic ray flux, are briefly discussed.