$60 Million Project With Specialized Detector LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) to Find Dark Matter Already Operating in South Dakota

A team of 250 scientists constructed the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter detector in an abandoned gold mine in South Dakota. It is reportedly the most sensitive detector in finding the dark matter.

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LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Dark Matter Detector Project

The sensitivity for dark matter detection that was attained during the initial data collecting period would be considerably improved by LZ for around 1,000 days of data collection.

Frank Wolfs, a Rochester professor of physics and astronomy who is in charge of Rochester's involvement in the project, said that they did not find any dark matter. However, the initial results of LZ reveal that it is currently the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world. Dark matter makes up 85% of the universe.

The $60 million project is set to end in five years. As of now, the team has only been operating underground for two months.

Although the initial data points were negative, they are optimistic that LZ may find some indication of the elusive particles before the mission is complete.

"The center of LZ is the purest place on Earth, maybe in the solar system. There's no other volume of space on or on this planet that is free of radiation and dust. We can only handle about a gram of dust in the detector - 3 grams of dust and we won't be able to find anything, " said Chamkaur Ghag, a team member at University College London.

LZ is designed to be sensitive even to the smallest signals of dark matter, according to Wolfs. It seeks out a type of theoretical particle called weakly intearacting massive particles (WIMPs) and the key is its two tanks connected to the detector.

LZ is made out of a huge titanium tank that holds 11 tons of incredibly pure liquid xenon. A burst of light is produced when an outside particle collides with a xenon atom and is detected by a network of detectors surrounding the tank. The characteristics of that light can then be examined to identify the kind of particle that produced it.

To protect the xenon from particles and radiation that we know do not come from dark matter, the tank is surrounded by a larger tank of pure water, and the entire assembly is buried more than a kilometer underground in an old gold mine.

LZ is currently the most sensitive, according to a 3.5-month test run that ended in April.

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LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Collaboration Project and Government Approval

The US Department of Energy (DOE) chose LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) as one of the three "G2" (for Generation 2) dark matter studies.

The experiment uses a two-phase time projection chamber (TPC) with seven active tons of liquid xenon to look for dark matter particles. It is located at the 4850 level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota.

The rejection of undesired background events in the center region of the detector is improved with auxiliary veto detectors, such as a liquid scintillator outer detector. The sensitivity of the previous generation of experiments will be improved by a factor of 50 or more by LZ.

About 250 scientists from 35 institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Korea are part of the LZ partnership. LUX (Large Underground Xenon) and ZEPLIN, two prior dark matter detection studies, were combined to form LZ (ZonEd Proportional scintillation in LIquid Noble gases).

Details about the project are published on the LZ Dark Matter website.