Directional detection is the only strategy for the unambiguous identification of galactic Dark Matter (DM) of masses > 1 GeV/c2 even in the presence of an irreducible background, such as the neutrino one or even neutrons at low energies. This approach requires measuring the direction of a DM-induced nuclear recoil in the keV-range. To probe such low energies, directional detectors must operate at high gain where 3D track reconstruction can be distorted by the influence of the numerous ions produced in the avalanches. Recently, we have succeeded to deconvolve these effects having even access to head-tail recognition in the keV-range. The experimental validation has been made by mono-energetic neutron fields with metrology quality at low energies (8 keV and 27 keV).
The spectra of such low energy neutron fields will be shown for the first time.
An additional key point for WIMP direct detection is the quenching factor. We have developed at the LPSC an original setup, called COMIMAC, opening the possibility for measuring the ionization quenching factor of different gas mixtures with different detectors. The differences with respect to the simulations are huge (20%) . The physics behind such differences will be discussed.
The 3D track reconstruction of events in the MIMAC chamber allows to describe the background at low energies by new observables. A new exploration of the Axion-Like-Particles searching for the decay in two identical photons has been studied and it will be also described.