The main characteristics of a new concept of spherical gaseous detectors, with some details on its operation are first given. The very low energy threshold of such detector has led to investigations of its potential performance for dark matter particle searches, in particular low mass WIMPs : original methods for energy and fiducial volume calibration and background rejection are described and preliminary results obtained with a low radioactivity prototype operated in Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane (Frejus lab) are presented. Typical expected sensitivities in cross section for low mass WIMPs are also shown, and other applications briefly discussed.
Download