Photomultiplier tubes capable of
detecting as little as a single photon of light line the top and bottom of the
LUX dark matter detector. They will record the position and intensity of collisions
between dark matter particles and xenon nuclei. Credit: Matt
Kapust/Sanford Underground Research Facility.
After its first run of more than three months, operating a mile underground in the Black Hills of South Dakota, a new experiment named LUX has proven itself the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world. LUX stands for Large Underground Xenon experiment. The LUX scientific collaboration includes 17 research universities and national laboratories in the United States, the UK, and Portugal. Dr Chamkaur Ghag leads the UCL activity in the experiment. He said: "To set a world-leading sensitivity with our very first science run is a fantastic achievement and a clear demonstration that this is the right technology to be pursuing in the hunt for direct dark matter detection." Dark matter, so far observed only by its gravitational effects on galaxies and clusters of galaxies, is the predominant form of matter in the universe. Weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs - so-called because they rarely interact with ordinary matter except through gravity - are the leading theoretical candidates for dark matter. Theories and results from other experiments suggest that WIMPs could be either "high mass" or "low mass." LUX has a peak sensitivity at a WIMP mass of 33 GeV/c2 (see below), with a sensitivity limit three times better than any previous experiment.
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