The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station: the era of precision cosmic-ray physics

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is the most powerful and sensitive cosmic-ray detector ever deployed in space to produce a complete inventory of charged particles and nuclei in cosmic rays near Earth in the energy range from GeV to few TeVs. Its physics goals are the study of cosmic-ray properties, indirect search for Dark Matter and direct search for primordial antimatter.
The improvement in accuracy over previous measurements is made possible through its long duration time in space, large acceptance, built in redundant systems and its thorough pre-flight calibration in the CERN test beam. These features enable AMS to analyse the data to an accuracy of ~1%. Since its installation on the International Space Station in May 2011, AMS has collected more than 90 billion cosmic-ray events and has produced precision measurements of electron, positron, proton, antiproton, He and light nuclei fluxes and of their ratios in cosmic rays of energy ranging from GeV to few TeVs. The percent precision of the AMS results challenges the current understanding of the origin and of the acceleration and propagation mechanisms of cosmic rays in the galaxy and thereby requires new theories to be developed by the physics and astrophysics community.
In this talk, after a brief introduction to cosmic-ray physics, I will present the latest AMS results based on its first five years of data taking, pointing out their implication for cosmic-ray modelling and for Dark Matter searches.