Measurement of antiproton production in $p$–He collisions at LHCb to constrain the secondary cosmic antiproton flux

The flux of cosmic ray antiprotons is a powerful tool for indirect detection of dark matter. The sensitivity is limited by the uncertainty on the predicted antiproton flux from scattering of primary rays on the interstellar medium. This is, in turn, limited by the knowledge of production cross-sections, notably in p–He scattering. Thanks to its internal gas target, the LHCb experiment performed the first measurement of antiproton production from collisions of LHC proton beams on He nuclei at rest. The results and prospects are presented.