IAS Program on Particle Theory - XLZD: The Definitive Underground Rare-Event Observatory

Abstract

The past decade has seen the sensitivity of searches for dark matter in the form of electroweak-scale Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) improve by more than an order of magnitude, through the use of liquid xenon time projection chambers such as XENONnT and LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ). The technology underpinning these detectors has been proven to be robust, well-understood and capable of routine operation with unprecedented background levels in multi-tonne-scale target masses. These detectors also offer outstanding prospects for searches for other rare processes including neutrinoless double-beta decay, coherent neutrino scattering and rare nuclear decays. This talk will outline the principles of LXe TPC dark matter detectors, describe the recent results from the currently-operating LZ experiment, and describe the next steps in the search for WIMP dark matter and rare events, with the proposed XLZD experiment.


About the Speaker

Prof. Dan TOVEY began his research career working on sodium iodide and liquid xenon dark matter experiments at Boulby Mine in the UK, with the UK Dark Matter Collaboration. He led one of the first neutron beam measurements of the nuclear recoil quenching factor and pulse-shape in single-phase LXe experiments and collaborated on early phenomenological studies of the interpretation of spin-dependent dark matter searches. Following his PhD, he moved into collider physics with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, working on searches for supersymmetric dark matter particles. He was co-convener of the ATLAS SUSY working group in 2003-7, spokesperson of ATLAS-UK in 2010-12, and ATLAS Physics Coordinator in 2016-17. In 2020 he joined the LUX-ZEPLIN collaboration, which operates the world's most powerful dark matter detector at SURF in South Dakota, USA, and is now also helping to develop the proposal for the XLZD next generation dark matter search.


About the Program

For more information, please refer to the program website at http://iasprogram.ust.hk/particle_theory.


For Attendees' Attention

• To attend, please join the Zoom meeting at https://hkust.zoom.us/j/4748835891 (Meeting ID: 474 8835 891).