Speaker
Description
The nature and origin of dark matter are among the most compelling mysteries of contemporary science. For over three decades, physicists have been trying to detect dark matter particles via collisions on target nuclei. Noble gases, in particular Xenon, have demonstrated leading sensitivities to WIMP-type dark matter due to their excellent radiopurity, chemical inertness, self-shielding, and particle discrimination properties. LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is located 1.5 km underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. By utilizing 7 tonnes of active liquid Xenon, the world’s largest target mass, in a dual-phase time-projection chamber LZ will achieve a sensitivity of 1.4x10^(−48) cm^2 to 40 GeV WIMPs in a 1000 day exposure. To achieve the backgrounds necessary for this experiment a rigorous radioassay, radon emanation, and cleanliness programs were employed and an active veto detector is built around the TPC. This presentation gives an overview of the LZ experiment, its design goals, and the status of construction and operations.
| First author | Björn Penning |
|---|---|
| penningb@umich.edu | |
| Collaboration / Activity | LZ Collaboration |
