Physics Colloquium

Date
Tue, May 7, 2024 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Location
1410 Toll Building

Description

Alvine Kamaha, UCLA
 

The Quest to See the Invisible with the LUX-ZEPLIN Experiment

LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a multi-tonne scale direct detection dark matter experiment currentlybeing operated at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. Theexperiment utilizes a dual-phase time projection chamber (TPC) aided by two veto detectors toprimarily look for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) which are promising darkmatter candidates. The active TPC region consists of 7 tonnes of liquid xenon viewed byphotomultiplier tubes to record light signals from particle interactions inside the detector. In thistalk, I will give an overview of the LZ experiment and discuss its state-of-the-art calibrationsystems which were designed to ensure a thorough understanding of the light signals producedby its various backgrounds in order to enhance their discrimination and the ability to recognizenew signals from potential dark matter particle interactions. I will also discuss LZ first WIMPresults and the outlook of the experiment for the future, including a merger with XENON andDARWIN collaborations to build the ultimate Generation-3 dark matter detector

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