International Collaborations in Search of Dark Matter

Since the discovery of cosmic ray antiprotons in 1979 using a balloon-borne magnet spectrometer a series of magnet spectrometers have been flown to search for a signature of dark matter annihilation/decay in cosmic rays. As long-duration balloon flights over Antarctica became available, not only antiproton to proton ratios, but also measurements of antiproton energy spectra became possible. More recently, PAMELA on a Russian Satellite and AMS-02 on the International Space Station (ISS) started providing precision measurements of various particles and anti-particles, including positions and antiprotons. In particular, excess positrons generated a lot of excitement due to their possible explanation of dark matter. Just last year, the JAXA-led CALET ISS mission, and the DAMPE Chinese Satellite were launched. NASA’s ISS-CREAM was delivered to KSC to await launch on SpaceX after completing its final verification at GSFC. These missions will provide complementary measurements exploring higher energies than previously possible to constrain cosmic ray propagation models in search of dark matter and the origin of cosmic rays. How international collaborations enabled recent progress and outlook for the field will be discussed.