94 research outputs found
Status of the LUX Dark Matter Search
The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter search experiment is currently
being deployed at the Homestake Laboratory in South Dakota. We will highlight
the main elements of design which make the experiment a very strong competitor
in the field of direct detection, as well as an easily scalable concept. We
will also present its potential reach for supersymmetric dark matter detection,
within various timeframes ranging from 1 year to 5 years or more.Comment: 4 pages, in proceedings of the SUSY09 conferenc
After LUX: The LZ Program
The LZ program consists of two stages of direct dark matter searches using
liquid Xe detectors. The first stage will be a 1.5-3 tonne detector, while the
last stage will be a 20 tonne detector. Both devices will benefit tremendously
from research and development performed for the LUX experiment, a 350 kg liquid
Xe dark matter detector currently operating at the Sanford Underground
Laboratory. In particular, the technology used for cryogenics and electrical
feedthroughs, circulation and purification, low-background materials and
shielding techniques, electronics, calibrations, and automated control and
recovery systems are all directly scalable from LUX to the LZ detectors.
Extensive searches for potential background sources have been performed, with
an emphasis on previously undiscovered background sources that may have a
significant impact on tonne-scale detectors. The LZ detectors will probe
spin-independent interaction cross sections as low as 5E-49 cm2 for 100 GeV
WIMPs, which represents the ultimate limit for dark matter detection with
liquid xenon technology.Comment: Conference proceedings from APS DPF 2011. 9 pages, 6 figure
The LUX Prototype Detector: Heat Exchanger Development
The LUX (Large Underground Xenon) detector is a two-phase xenon Time
Projection Chamber (TPC) designed to search for WIMP-nucleon dark matter
interactions. As with all noble element detectors, continuous purification of
the detector medium is essential to produce a large (1ms) electron lifetime;
this is necessary for efficient measurement of the electron signal which in
turn is essential for achieving robust discrimination of signal from background
events. In this paper we describe the development of a novel purification
system deployed in a prototype detector. The results from the operation of this
prototype indicated heat exchange with an efficiency above 94% up to a flow
rate of 42 slpm, allowing for an electron drift length greater than 1 meter to
be achieved in approximately two days and sustained for the duration of the
testing period.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure
First Results from the LUX Dark Matter Experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility
The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment is a dual-phase xenon time-projection chamber
operating at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (Lead, South Dakota). The LUX cryostat
was filled for the first time in the underground laboratory in February 2013. We report results of the first
WIMP search data set, taken during the period from April to August 2013, presenting the analysis of
85.3 live days of data with a fiducial volume of 118 kg. A profile-likelihood analysis technique shows our
data to be consistent with the background-only hypothesis, allowing 90% confidence limits to be set on
spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering with a minimum upper limit on the cross section of
7.6 × 10−46 cm2 at a WIMP mass of 33 GeV=c2. We find that the LUX data are in disagreement with lowmass
WIMP signal interpretations of the results from several recent direct detection experiments
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