A one million m helium balloon
The physics group led by Prof. Manfred Simon is working on the field of
In collaborations with universities and institutes from Europe and the USA several balloon experiments were carried out, in which the abundancies and energy spectra of cosmic rays were measured.
In the last years the work concentrated on measurements of cosmic antimatter (antiprotons, positrons). For these experiments the superconducting magnet spectrometer of the New Mexico State University was used. The Siegen group developed and built high resolution drift chambers for this spectrometer.
Parallel to this experimental work theoretical calculations of cosmic ray propagation are made. Additionally the influence of the atmosphere for balloon measurements is examined.