Searches for light dark matter and solar neutrino interactions with the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment

Ann Wang, Stanford

Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 14:00

Auditorium/Remote

Abstract

Understanding the composition of dark matter is one of the most compelling problems in particle physics. Although there is abundant astrophysical evidence, detecting dark matter using terrestrial experiments would allow us to directly probe the nature of a new particle and constrain its mass and spin. The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment, which looks for dark matter interacting with liquid xenon, has world-leading sensitivity to WIMP dark matter particles with masses from ~10 GeV to ~1 TeV. I will discuss new results from the LZ experiment which focus on light dark matter candidates with masses below 9 GeV, where the background mitigation and analysis challenges differ significantly from higher mass searches. In this regime we also expect a significant number of interactions from solar neutrinos. I will also discuss ways we can further improve the sensitivity of xenon-based detectors in the search for dark matter.

Remote Connection: Remote Connection: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/68843850404pwd=Pn28i8az4BdaAT22Qa2UaVkHa3kX6B.1

Meeting ID: 688 4385 0404 Passcode: 280724