Studying antiprotons from balloons and Space Station

Experimental measurements are proposed to determine the existence of cosmic antiprotons and to differentiate between various hypothetical origins for them. The balloon-borne experiment proposed by Balasubrahmanyan et al. (1983) for detecting 50-220-MeV antiprotons and measuring their energy distribution is described; the astrophysical significance of antiproton measurements is considered; the antiproton/proton ratios predicted by various cosmic-ray and exotic models are presented graphically; and the performance required of a Space Station superconducting-magnet detector for the 10-1000-GeV range is discussed. It is concluded that an instrument with 0.3-sq m sr geometry could distinguish (at a 5-sigma level) between hypotheses with spectral-exponent separation of 0.1 in observing time about 1 month, assuming a spectral exponent as steep as E to the -3rd.