Physics Colloquium, November 22, 2011
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

4:00 p.m., Physics Research Building (PRB), Room 1080

Reception at 3:45 p.m., Atrium, PRB