Rare Event Searches in Liquid Xenon Time Projection Chambers

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Abigail Kopec is awarded an NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to conduct a program of research and education at the University of California, San Diego. Kopec will lead searches for signatures of particulate dark matter and neutrinos in the new XENONnT experiment, and investigate the sensitivity of a single-phase liquid xenon time projection chamber (TPC) to single-electron signals to enhance the detector’s low-energy sensitivity. As a key part of the program, Kopec will mentor undergraduate and graduate students in the proposed projects and participate in department activities to promote a positive inclusive culture and plans to take on leadership roles mentoring newer members within the XENON Collaboration. The particle nature of dark matter remains one of the greatest mysteries in physics today. The study of neutrino properties has provided clear evidence that the Standard Model is incomplete, and the first confirmed particle dark matter detections would represent a signature of physics beyond the Standard Model. The program to enhance the the XENONnT TPC low-energy measurements holds the potential for significant impact in both of these areas, including increased sensitivity to lower-mass weakly interacting massive-particle dark matter, and harnessing solar neutrinos to provide the potential first observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nuclear scattering on xenon atoms.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.