Properties of Cosmic Helium Isotopes Measured by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

Precision measurements by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on the International Space Station of $^{3}He$ and $^{4}He$ fluxes are presented. The measurements are based on 100 million $^{4}He$ nuclei in the rigidity range from 2.1 to 21 GV and 18 million He3 from 1.9 to 15 GV collected from May 2011 to November 2017. We observed that the $^{3}He$ and $^{4}He$ fluxes exhibit nearly identical variations with time. The relative magnitude of the variations decreases with increasing rigidity. The rigidity dependence of the $^{3}He/^{4}He$ flux ratio is measured for the first time. Below 4 GV, the $^{3}He/^{4}He$ flux ratio was found to have a significant long-term time dependence. Above 4 GV, the $^{3}He/^{4}He$ flux ratio was found to be time independent, and its rigidity dependence is well described by a single power law $\alpha R^{\Delta}$ with $\Delta=-0.294±0.004$. Unexpectedly, this value is in agreement with the B/O and B/C spectral indices at high energies.