First detection of radon progeny recoil tracks by MIMAC

Q. Riffard (1) , D. Santos (1) , O. Guillaudin (1) , G. Bosson (1) , O. Bourrion (1) , J. Bouvier (1) , T. Descombes (1) , C. Fourel (1) , J.F. Muraz (1) , L. Lebreton (2) , D. Maire (2) , P. Colas (2) , E. Ferrer-Ribas (3) , I. Giomataris (3) , J. Busto (4) , D. Fouchez (4) , J. Brunner (4) , C. Tao (4)

1 LPSC - Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie
2 IRSN - Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire
3 IRFU - Institut de Recherches sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers
4 CPPM - Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille

The MIMAC experiment is a $\mu$-TPC matrix project for directional dark matter search. Directional detection is a strategy based on the measurement of the WIMP flux anisotropy due to the solar system motion with respect to the dark matter halo. The main purpose of MIMAC project is the measurement of the energy and the direction of nuclear recoils in 3D produced by elastic scattering of WIMPs. Since June 2012 a bi-chamber prototype is operating at the Modane underground laboratory. In this paper, we report the first ionization energy and 3D track observations of nuclear recoils produced by the radon progeny. This measurement shows the capability of the MIMAC detector and opens the possibility to explore the low energy recoil directionality signature.

Domaines: Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]

Q. Riffard, D. Santos, O. Guillaudin, G. Bosson, O. Bourrion, et al.. First detection of radon progeny recoil tracks by MIMAC. Journal of Instrumentation, 2017, 12 (06), pp.P06021. ⟨10.1088/1748-0221/12/06/P06021⟩. ⟨in2p3-01146231⟩