SEARCHING FOR COLD DARK-MATTER IN THE SOUTHERN-HEMISPHERE - THE EXPERIMENT AT SIERRA-GRANDE

An experimental search of distinctive signals of WIMPs is underway at the Sierra Grande mine (similar to 1000 m.w.e.) in Argentina with a na tural germanium detector, The site and the experimental set-up are des cribed, The results corresponding to an exposure of 302.4 kg day are p resented in the customary form of sigma(m) exclusion plots, The region in the WIMP-Ge cross-section versus WIMP mass plane ruled out by this experiment for heavy, non-relativistic neutrino-like Dirac particles scattering coherently off Ge nuclei through vector weak interactions c orresponds to masses from 12 GeV up to about 1.7 TeV. The data taking is in progress with the purpose of looking for possible daily modulati on effects in the Southern Hemisphere.