Abstract:

Liquid Xe detectors have been a game changer in the field of dark matter detection, bringing about astonishing improvements in sensitivity over the past decade.  The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) detector operated at Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in South Dakota until late 2016, and set world-leading limits on WIMP dark matter at the time.  Since then, the LUX collaboration has continued to analyze its extensive data trove taken in the 4 years of operation with new analysis methods, and testing additional dark matter candidate hypotheses.  The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) collaboration has grown out of these two precursor experiments, with the goal of constructing a next generation dark matter detector in the same location with 7 tonnes of fully active liquid xenon.  The LZ detector holds the promise to be the ultimate dark matter direct detection experiment, pushing its sensitivity close to an irreducible background set by cosmic ray neutrinos.  The LZ experiment is well underway, and slated to start operations in April 2020.  This talk will present an overview and the current status of the LZ experiment.