Physics Colloquium - Tom Shutt (Case-Western Reserve University) " The hunt for dark matter, and the LUX experiment"

November 22, 2011

4:00PM - 5:00PM

Smith Seminar Room

Add to Calendar 2011-11-22 16:00:00 2011-11-22 17:00:00 Physics Colloquium - Tom Shutt (Case-Western Reserve University) " The hunt for dark matter, and the LUX experiment" The hunt for dark matter, and the LUX experimentTom Shutt Case-Western Reserve UniversityThe world-wide hunt for particle dark matter has, if anything, accelerated in recent years with a number of new experiments, possible hints of a signal at low mass, and in the US a continuing effort to create a national underground science facility. Recent advances in liquid-phase detectors promise a radical increase in the sensitivity of searches for WIMP dark matter, and the prospects for a nearly complete test of supersymmetric dark matter over the next decade or more seem high. I will discuss these broader developments and also the LUX experiment, of which I am member. LUX is deploying a 300 kg of two-phase Xe-based detector in the location of Ray Davis' original solar neutrino experiment in the Homestake mine in South Dakota. A proposed follow-on experiment at the 20-ton scale would be an ultimate direct dark matter detection experiment - closing the available WIMP search window on Earth that is limited by the signal from coherent scattering of astrophysical neutrinos.Dr. Shutt's Web Site Faculty Host:  Gary Steigman Smith Seminar Room Department of Physics physics@osu.edu America/New_York public

The hunt for dark matter, and the LUX experiment

Tom Shutt

Case-Western Reserve University

The world-wide hunt for particle dark matter has, if anything, accelerated in recent years with a number of new experiments, possible hints of a signal at low mass, and in the US a continuing effort to create a national underground science facility. Recent advances in liquid-phase detectors promise a radical increase in the sensitivity of searches for WIMP dark matter, and the prospects for a nearly complete test of supersymmetric dark matter over the next decade or more seem high. I will discuss these broader developments and also the LUX experiment, of which I am member. LUX is deploying a 300 kg of two-phase Xe-based detector in the location of Ray Davis' original solar neutrino experiment in the Homestake mine in South Dakota. A proposed follow-on experiment at the 20-ton scale would be an ultimate direct dark matter detection experiment - closing the available WIMP search window on Earth that is limited by the signal from coherent scattering of astrophysical neutrinos.

Dr. Shutt's Web Site

Faculty Host: Gary Steigman