Deuteron and antideuteron production in galactic cosmic-rays

The increasing role of antideuterons in the indirect search for dark matter and new cosmic-ray propagation features from deuterons have generated that the study of the cosmic-ray deuteron and antideuteron receives an increasing interest in current astrophysics investigations. To determine such fluxes precisely, it is necessary to consider the contribution from the nuclear interactions of primary cosmic rays with the interstellar matter. For that purpose, in this thesis, the production of cosmic-ray deuterons and antideuterons in the Galaxy is calculated using advanced Monte Carlo (MC) generators and an updated database of collider measurements. Deuteron and antideuteron production in hadron interactions is modeled through the coalescence model, which has demonstrated to reproduce data successfully. The coalescence mechanism is simulated with an event-by-event afterburner in tandem with MC generators such as EPOS-LHC, QGSJET-II-04, and FTFP-GEANT4. These estimates depend on a single parameter ($p_0$) obtained from a fit to the latest collider data, including ALICE-LHC current results. It was found that $p_0$ for antideuterons is not a constant at all energies as previous works suggested, and as a result, the antideuteron production cross section can be at least 20 times smaller in the low collision energy region than earlier estimations. CR deuterons and antideuterons propagation in the Galaxy is calculated using GALPROP, along with a set of parameters that fit AMS-02 latest observations in proton, Helium and Boron-to-Carbon ratio. The resulting antideuteron flux, employing EPOS-LHC, shows a larger magnitude compared to previous studies and a slightly different shape in the energy distribution as a consequence of the coalescence parameter ($p_0$) energy dependence. Deuteron flux evaluation with QGSJET-II-04 shows an improved description of measurements at high energy compared to the result without considering coalescence. A simulation of the antideuteron production in AMS-02 as a consequence of CR collisions with the detector materials was conducted. It was concluded, that it is unlikely an antideuteron generated in the detector can be misidentified as an antideuteron from an external source in the lifetime of AMS-02 operations.