# Discovery potential for directional Dark Matter detection with nuclear emulsions

## TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of using advanced nuclear emulsions with optical read-out to detect the direction of nuclear recoils, aiming to improve dark matter detection beyond current gas-based detectors.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel solid-state detector concept using nuclear emulsions with nanometric resolution for directional dark matter detection.

## Key findings

- Potential to distinguish dark matter signals from background via recoil directionality
- Enhanced sensitivity due to high-resolution optical read-out systems
- Feasibility of scaling up solid target detectors for dark matter searches

## Abstract

Direct Dark Matter searches are nowadays one of the most fervid research topics with many experimental efforts devoted to the search for nuclear recoils induced by the scattering of Weakly Interactive Massive Particles (WIMPs). Detectors able to reconstruct the direction of the nucleus recoiling against the scattering WIMP are opening a new frontier to possibly extend Dark Matter searches beyond the neutrino background. Exploiting directionality would also prove the galactic origin of Dark Matter with an unambiguous signal-to-background separation. Indeed, the angular distribution of recoiled nuclei is centered around the direction of the Cygnus constellation, while the background distribution is expected to be isotropic. Current directional experiments are based on gas TPC whose sensitivity is limited by the small achievable detector mass. In this paper we present the discovery potential of a directional experiment based on the use of a solid target made of newly developed nuclear emulsions and of optical read-out systems reaching unprecedented nanometric resolution.