Speaker
Description
The satellite-borne PAMELA experiment was launched on the 15th June
2006 from the Baikonur cosmodrome. Until January 2016 PAMELA made high-precision measurements of the charged
component of cosmic-rays over a wide energy range. Because of its long-duration operation,
PAMELA represents an ideal detector for cosmic-ray solar modulation studies.
The PAMELA collaboration published time-dependent proton, helium and electron spectra
as well as the positron to electron ratio over ten years of data taking.
These results were extensively used to fine-tune a state of the art 3D numerical model for
cosmic rays propagation trough the Heliosphere. This numerical model takes into account all the physicsl
processes of propagation including the charge-sign dependence.
A precise knowledge of the amount of solar modulation on the astrophysical background
of low energy antiparticle spectra is fundamental in order to search for an
excess due to e.g. dark matter annihilation or decay.
Here the main results of the PAMELA experiment on solar modulation are presented togheter with
a brief description of the 3D numerical propagation model.
The global solar modulation effect as well as the associated uncertainties on the low energy antimatter
component of cosmic rays will be also discussed in the framework of indirect dark matter detection.
