CYGNO: a gaseous TPC with optical readout for dark matter directional search

The CYGNO project has the goal to use a gaseous TPC with optical readout todetect dark matter and solar neutrinos with low energy threshold anddirectionality. The CYGNO demonstrator will consist of 1 m 3 volume filled withHe:CF 4 gas mixture at atmospheric pressure. Optical readout with highgranularity CMOS sensors, combined with fast light detectors, will provide adetailed reconstruction of the event topology. This will allow to discriminatethe nuclear recoil signal from the background, mainly represented by low energyelectron recoils induced by radioactivity. Thanks to the high reconstructionefficiency, CYGNO will be sensitive to low mass dark matter, and will have thepotential to overcome the neutrino floor, that ultimately limitsnon-directional dark matter searches.