Abstract
The CYGNO project aims at developing a high resolution Time Projection Chamber with optical readout for directional dark matter searches and solar neutrino spectroscopy. Peculiar CYGNO’s features are the 3D tracking capability provided by the combination of photomultipliers and scientific CMOS camera signals, combined with a helium-fluorine-based gas mixture at atmospheric pressure amplified by gas electron multipliers structures. In this paper, the performances achieved with CYGNO prototypes and the prospects for the upcoming underground installation at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of a 50-L detector in fall 2021 will be discussed, together with the plans for a 1-m3 experiment. The synergy with the ERC consolidator, grant project INITIUM, aimed at realising negative ion drift operation within the CYGNO 3D optical approach, will be further illustrated.
Highlights
Dark Matter (DM) dominance of our universe is an established paradigm nowadays, and the identification and the study of its nature represent one of the most compelling tasks for fundamental physics
CF4 large Fluorine content provide a spin-odd target for simultaneous sensitivity to spin dependent Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs)-proton interactions; The atmospheric pressure and room temperature operation; while increasing the available target mass compared to current gaseous directional DM approaches, it minimises the infrastructures needed and overall experiment dimensions, costs, and material budget; The decoupling of the readout sensor from the gas target volume, not possible with charge-based readouts
This avoids the readout outgassing into the target, modifying the gas properties or producing recoiling radon progeny in or near the active detector volume, relatively relaxing the radiopurity requirements; The possibility to improve tracking and fiducialization performances with the use of negative ion drift gas mixture; here lies the cardinal synergy between CYGNO
Summary
Dark Matter (DM) dominance of our universe is an established paradigm nowadays, and the identification and the study of its nature represent one of the most compelling tasks for fundamental physics. The expected WIMP scattering in the detector is due to the Earth’s relative motion with respect to the galactic halo that is believed to contain a high concentration of DM from the measurement of the rotational curves of our galaxy. The foreseen experiment capabilities to actively discriminate electromagnetic background and to determine both ERs and NRs direction of arrival will allow CYGNO to explore new physics cases that possess such signatures. These include, among the others, the elastic scattering of sub-GeV DM [5] and of solar neutrinos [6,7]
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