Topic: Mining for WIMPs with the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter experiment (Vimeo Link)
Speaker: Dr. David Woodward
Dark matter is known to make up ~ 85% of the mass of our universe, influencing the structure of the cosmos and the motions of galaxies through its gravitational effects. Despite an abundance of evidence for its existence, the exact nature of dark matter remains a mystery. Could it be a new particle, waiting to be discovered? Operating a mile underground in the Davis Cavern at SURF, the LZ experiment is seeking to directly observe dark matter particle interactions using a 7 tonne liquid xenon target. LZ's primary goal is to detect Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), a leading candidate for dark matter. During this talk, we will review the LZ experiment and report on our latest results: the most sensitive direct search for WIMPs to-date, using a combined 280 live days of data.fects.
Dr. David Woodward a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) who has been working on the direct search for dark matter for over 10 years. He obtained his PhD from the University of Sheffield in 2017, then worked at Penn State University as a postdoc and research assistant professor before moving to LBNL in 2023. This journey included several years working at SURF during the construction, commissioning, and early operations of the LZ dark matter experiment. Woodward co-led the publication of LZ's first results and served as the experiment's run manager between 2021 and 2023. He is currently the LZ assistant operations manager and serves on the SURF Users Association Executive Committee.
