Louis M. Barbier

A complete CV is available in CV

Some projects I am working on or have worked on are:

• NIGHTGLOW is a balloon instrument designed to measure and monitor the Earth's near ultraviolet (300 - 400 nm) atmosphereic glow on a long duration balloon (designed to circumnavigate the earth one or two times). NIGHTGLOW is a collaboration with New Mexico State University Particle Astrophysics Lab PAL and the University of Utah HIRES. Ultra-high-energy cosmic-rays that interact in the earth's atmosphere cause the nitrogen to fluoresce, emitting near ultraviolet light. These air showers can be seen by measuring this nitrogen glow against the natural background of light (which is measured by NIGHTGLOW).
  The results from the nightglow engineering flight are available here: nightglow.pdf.
  
  
• SWIFT An exciting mission to unlock the secret of gamma-ray bursts!!! Check out the SWIFT web site for all the latest news.
  
• OWL will search for the very highest energy cosmic-ray particles - at energies exceeding 10^20 eV. Such events are rare - but are possible harbingers of new physics.
  
• HNX The Heavy Nucleus Explorer Mission will for the first time make detailed measurements of the very heaviest cosmic-rays, those extending from iron up the periodic table through the actinides.
  
• ACCESS A mission to study the "knee" in the cosmic-ray spectrum, a long-standing astrophysical problem. Its possible that new physics is involved in forming this feature.
  
• EPACT (Energetic Particles: Acceleration, Composition and Transport Experiment) which consists of two solid state silicon telescope instruments (ELITE - the Electron Isotope Telescope and LEMT - Low Energy Matrix Telescope) and was launched on the GGS WIND spacecraft in Nov. 1994. This spacecraft will orbit the L1 Lagrange point between the sun and the earth, with a mission lifetime of at least three years. LEMT is designed to measure low energy particles ( < 10 MeV/nucleon ) with 1 < Z < 26. The front detectors are thin (about 18 microns) to allow measurements down to a few hundred keV where we can search for isotopic anomalies in (impulsive) solar flares. ELITE looks at higher energy particles ( > 10 MeV/nucleon) and covers the same charge range as LEMT.
  
  
• IMAX (Isotope Matter-Antimatter eXperiment) a balloon borne magnetic spectrometer which flew in July 1992 and measured the fluxes of hydrogen and helium isotopes, and antiprotons in the cosmic radiation. It was a collaboration between the Goddard Space Flight Center, New Mexico State University, Caltech, and the University of Siegen, Germany. IMAX has measured 16 antiprotons in three energy bins [(0.2 - 1.0) GeV, (1.0 - 2.6) GeV, and (2.6 - 3.2) GeV], and determined not only an antiproton to proton ratio but also an absolute antiproton flux. Both the flux and the ratio are consistent with antiprotons being secondary products of cosmic ray interactions with the ISM, and imply an antiproton lifetime of about 10^7 years or more.
  
  
• ISOMAX (Isotope Magnet Experiment) is a two coil magnetic spectrometer primarily designed to measure the amount of radioactive Beryllium 10 in the cosmic radiation. Because of its long half life, Be 10 can be used to measure the lifetime of the galactic cosmic rays. It flew for one day in the summer of 1998, with a long duration flight of 10 days planned for 2000. Unfortunately the latest flight of ISOMAX ended with the instrument being destroyed. Our collaborators on this project are Caltech and the University of Siegen , Germany.
  For the latest results from ISOMAX (1998), check here: isomax.pdf
  
  
• POEMS (the Positron Electron Magnet Spectrometer) which was one of the NASA Small Explorer Satellites but has recently been selected for study as a Medium Class Explorer (MIDEX). POEMS will be the first instrument capable of measuring the positron component of the galactic cosmic rays and solar flares above the atmosphere. We are hoping for final selection as a MIDEX in the spring 1996. POEMS is a collaboration with the University of Chicago, the University of Delaware, Bartol Research Institute , Louisiana State University , the University of Arizona , University of Kiel, Germany, and the Central Research Institute for Physics, Budapest, Hungary. Goddard Space Flight Center will build the silicon tracking hodoscope for POEMS.
  
  
• TIGER (Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder)is a balloon instrument that has flown twice (December 2001 and December 2003) from Antarctica to measure the elemental composition of the cosmic rays heavier than iron. It is a collaboration with Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Minnesota. The 2001 / 2002 flight ended after a record breaking 32+ days afloat over the Antarctic continent! (Making two complete circumnavigations of the continent.) The second flight (December of 2003) went 18.5 days! The instrument is currently sitting on the ice awaiting recovery next season (hopefully!). Goddard is responsible for the Cherenkov counters, and the on-board power system and telemetry.
  

Recent Papers are in PAPERS

Conference Papers are in Conference