NEWSdm: an emulsion-based directional Dark Matter experiment

Abstract

In the field of direct Dark Matter search, a variety of experiments have been developed over the past decades aiming at detecting Weakly Interactive Massive Particles (WIMPs) via their scattering in a detector medium and, in the last years, several experimental efforts are concentrated on the directionality approach: the observation of the incoming apparent direction of WIMPs would in fact provide a new and unambiguous signature and the proof of the galactic origin of Dark Matter. Furthermore the directionality appears as the only way to overcome the neutrino background that is expected to finally prevent standard techniques to further lower cross-section limits. The NEWSdm experiment has been proposed to measure the direction of WIMP-induced nuclear recoils by using a novel emulsion technology with improved spatial resolution. In this paper we will present the status of the experiment, the performances of the newly developed read-out systems reaching sub-micrometric resolution and we will discuss the expected sensitivity and discovery potential.