Towards a space-based superconducting spectrometer for rare antimatter: preliminary design and feasibility study

Abstract We present a preliminary design study for a superconducting magnetic spectrometer aimed at detecting light galactic antinuclei in space. As a first step, a reduced-scale demonstrator is under development for deployment on a stratospheric balloon over Antarctica. To evaluate the feasibility of this approach, Geant4 simulations have been performed to estimate the survival probability of antimatter particles at balloon altitudes. The geometry of the superconducting coils has been optimized to enhance the deflection of charged particles and improve momentum resolution. In addition, preliminary studies have been carried out on the use of machine learning techniques to support momentum reconstruction from detector signals. In particular, artificial neural network architectures are being explored as a possible complement to traditional fitting methods, to enable momentum reconstruction even in the presence of a highly non-uniform magnetic field. This work constitutes a key step toward the development of a space-based instrument for the detection of rare antimatter.