Cosmic-ray astrophysics with the AMS-02 experiment

Precise knowledge of the hadronic component of cosmic rays (CRs) is needed to describe the CR production, acceleration and propagation mechanisms in our galaxy. Present measurements suffer from limitations coming from short exposure time, intrinsic instrumental limitations and restricted energy range. The AMS-02 experiment is a large acceptance magnetic spectrometer designed to perform high statistics studies of CRs in space. The detector will operate on the International Space Station (ISS) for a minimum of 3 years. AMS-02 will precisely measure the CR fluxes of individual elements up to Z = 26 in the rigidity range from 500 MV to few TV. AMS-02 will allow to test propagation models through the precise measurements of secondary-to-primary ratios as d/p, 3He/4He in the energy range up to 10 GeV/n, and B/C, sub-Fe/Fe up to TeV/n. In particular the measurements of 10Be/9Be will be performed with high accuracy allowing for the understanding of the age of the CR confinement and constraining models of the size of the galactic halo.