Speaker
Description
The CYGNO project aims to develop a gaseous high precision Time Projection Chamber with an optical readout for directional Dark Matter searches and solar neutrino spectroscopy at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. CYGNO (a CYGNus TPC with Optical readout ) is part of the CYGNUS proto-collaboration, which aims to develop, at an international level, a Galactic Nuclear Recoil Observatory, a ton scale detector with directional sensitivity.
The innovative features of CYGNO are the use of a He-CF$_4$ scintillating gas mixture, at atmospheric pressure and room temperature, together with a tiple GEMs amplification system optically coupled to a PMT and a sCMOS camera. Thanks to these features, it is possible to achieve 3D track reconstruction with head-tail identification, and background rejection up to energies of O(keV) to improve sensitivity on low mass WIMP energy, even overtaking the neutrino floor.
In the presentation, I will discuss the latest $R\&D$ results from the CYGNO project. I will illustrate the optical readout approach features, showing the energy threshold performances, the 3D tracking capability, the possibility of inferring the absolute Z of the particle, and the particle identification properties down to O(keV) energies. I will discuss the underground installation of the 50$l$ prototype, towards the realization of the O(1)$m^3$ demonstrator, to show then the latest results on the internal and external radioactivity background, and thus the expected dark matter sensitivity of the 1$m^3$ CYGNO demonstrator.
I will finally illustrate the synergies between CYGNO and the ERC project INITIUM, aimed at realising negative ion drift operation within the CYGNO 3D optical approach
\newline
\newline
Samuele Torelli, on behalf of the CYGNO collaboration
