The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Dark Matter Search

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Direct dark matter experiments search for the extremely rare and very faint collisions expected to occur between the cold dark matter particles that are believed to permeate our galaxy and the nuclei of atoms in the active medium of a radiation detector. Weakly Interactive Massive Particles, or WIMPs, are hypothetical elementary particles weighing as little as a few protons or as much as several heavy nuclei; besides gravity, they would interact by the weak nuclear force, thereby providing a mechanics for their possible detection. The motivation to search for WIMP dark matter is strong, with theories that attempt to explain what lies beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics providing very good candidates.The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment will deploy a 7-tonne liquid xenon WIMP detector at the 4850-foot level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) after a 3-year construction phase. In this most quiet of environments, shielded from cosmic rays and local backgrounds, LZ will then operate for at least 3 years to hopefully find a handful of tell-tale signs of WIMP interactions. LZ will be so sensitive that it will be limited only by backgrounds from astrophysical neutrinos, which provide a fundamental limit to these searches. However, before neutrinos set in, this experiment has the potential to finally shed light on the nature of dark matter.