Light nuclei and isotope abundance in cosmic rays measured by the space experiment PAMELA: Preliminary results

PAMELA is a space telescope orbiting around the Earth since June 2006. The scientific objectives addressed by the mission are the measurement of the antiprotons and positrons spectra in cosmic rays, the hunt for antinuclei as well as the determination of light nuclei fluxes from hydrogen to oxygen in a wide energy range and with very high statistics. The apparatus comprises a time-of-flight system, a magnetic spectrometer, a silicon–tungsten electromagnetic calorimeter, an anticoincidence system, a shower tail catcher scintillator and a neutron detector. In this paper charge identification capabilities of these devices, together with preliminary results concerning isotope abundance, will be presented.