The LZ Dark Matter Experiment

Funder	Science and Technology Facilities Council
Recipient Organization	University College London
Country	United Kingdom
Start Date	Sep 30, 2022
End Date	Mar 30, 2026
Duration	1,277 days
Number of Grantees	2
Roles	Student; Supervisor
Data Source	UKRI Gateway to Research
Grant ID	`2726716`

Grant Description

The existence of dark matter is now supported by a wide range of physical observations, ranging from galactic to cosmological scales. Our best cosmological models predict dark matter to make up 85% of the matter-content of the universe.

One of the leading particle candidates that can effectively explain cosmological observations is the Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPS), the presence of which can be directly searched for by rare-event underground experiments via its scattering off atomic nuclei.

The 7 tonne dual-phase liquid xenon based LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment operates in the Davis Campus at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (South Dakota, USA), with world-leading sensitivity to WIMPs above 9 GeV following first science results in July 2022, from a fraction of LZ'S planned 1000 day exposure.

This project will focus on data analysis from LZ's science runs, towards discovery of new physics.