An indirect search for dark matter using antideuterons: the GAPS experiment

The general antiparticle spectrometer (GAPS) experiment is an indirect dark matter search. GAPS detects the antideuterons produced in WIMP-WIMP annihilation, a generic feature in many theories beyond the Standard Model. Antideuterons are a nearly background free signature of exotic physics. GAPS has substantial discovery potential for dark matter within the minimal supersymmetric model and its extensions, and models with universal extra dimensions. GAPS complements underground experiments, reaching parts of supersymmetric parameter space unavailable to them, and working to better constrain the properties of dark matter where they overlap in parameter space. GAPS is designed to be launched from a balloon. GAPS is funded for a prototype flight in 2011, to be followed by a long duration balloon flight to execute its science program. We discuss recent theoretical investigations on antideuteron searches, and their implications for experiment design. We describe the GAPS experiment placing particular emphasis on recent investigations that represent technical or conceptual extensions of the original GAPS concept.