NEWS-G, Light dark matter search with a Spherical Proportional Counter, First results and Future prospects

Abstract

NEWS-G (New Experiments With Spheres-Gas) is an experiment aiming to shine a light on the dark matter conundrum using a novel gaseous detector, the Spherical Proportional Counter. NEWS-G uses light noble gases, such as hydrogen, helium, and neon, as targets, to search for light dark matter down to the sub-GeV/c${}^2$ mass region. The first detector of NEWS-G, is a 60 cm diameter sphere already operated in the Underground Laboratory of Modane, while the full-scale detector, 140 cm in diameter, will be installed in SNOLab at the end of this year. In this work, we present the first NEWS-G results with neon as target, which excludes at 90$\%$ confidence level cross-sections above $4.4\cdot 10{}^{37}$ cm${}^2$ for a candidate with a mass 0.5 GeV$/$c${}^2$ based on 9.7 kg$\cdot$days of exposure. The status of the project and prospects for the future are also discussed.

Presented at 53rd Rencontres de Moriond EW 2018