LZ Data Analysis Coordinator
"Paulo Brás, researcher in the LIP Dark Matter group, is the new Data Analysis Coordinator of the LZ experiment, which is installed at the SURF laboratory (USA). "
The LZ dark matter experiment is installed at a depth of 1.5 kilometers in a former gold mine converted into a laboratory, SURF - Sanford Underground Research Facility, in the USA. LZ started collecting data this year and recently published its first results, which demonstrated the unprecedented sensitivity of the detector.
Our colleague Paulo Brás has just been appointed LZ Data Analysis Coordinator. Paulo defended his PhD thesis in 2021 and is part of the Dark Matter group at LIP. He is now in charge of coordinating the complex and detailed process of analyzing the collected data, which involves scientists from all the collaboration.
The LZ collaboration includes 250 scientists and engineers from 35 institutions from the USA, United Kingdom, Portugal and South Korea. The Portuguese team is formed by LIP researchers and students. LIP is a founding member of the LZ collaboration and has made many key contributions to the experiment.
The LZ detector is composed of 10 tons of ultra-pure liquid xenon contained in a titanium tank and observed by 494 light sensors capable of detecting the tiniest amount of light. If dark matter interacts with normal matter, even very weakly, it can collide with a xenon nucleous producing a scintillation signal measurable by the light sensors.
Dark matter should constitute about 85% of the matter in the Universe. It has never been directly observed (it does not emit, absorb, or interact with light in any way), but its gravitational effects indirectly alert us to its presence.