Towards a Next-Generation Dark-Matter Experiment
"Scientists from the leading dark matter experiments met last week at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), joining forces in the XLZD consortium to design and build a future dark matter experiment."
The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) and XENON collaborations are currently operating some of the most sensitive experiments in this area, while the DARWIN collaboration has been working on the development of a larger detector, also based on liquid xenon. These collaborations are now jointly working on a next-generation experiment, which is expected to start operating later in this decade.
The Dark Matter group of LIP, a founding member of the LZ collaboration, is already involved in the preliminary studies for the design of this experiment and the choice of the underground laboratory for its installation, and was represented in this meeting by Isabel Lopes, Alexandre Lindote and Paulo Brás.
This project is expected to make dramatic advances for our understanding of dark matter, the dominant form of matter in the universe. It will also be able to study neutrino properties and search for extremely rare nuclear decays, working as a Global Rare Event Observatory. A recent whitepaper outlining the science case of this experiment was signed by over 600 scientists from 150 institutions in 28 countries, underlining the international scope and support of the project.
To know more:
Tomorrow, July 7: LZ first results webinar
LIP Dark Matter group page
LUX-ZEPLIN website
DARWIN website
XENON website
Next-generation experiment whitepaper