Widening the search for Dark Matter and Physics beyond the Standard Model with direct detection experiments

通过直接探测实验将暗物质和物理学的搜索范围扩大到标准模型之外

• 批准号: ST/R003181/2
• 负责人: James Dobson
• 金额: $ 12.87万
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FR003181%2F2
• 关键词: Widening; search; Dark; Matter; Physics

Everything we can see in the Universe is only a small fraction of its mass. Most of it, an incredible 85%, is 'dark' - and we know remarkably little about it. We can infer the role of this mysterious 'Dark Matter' in the early Universe when it allowed galaxies to form and we can observe its gravitational effects today as it holds the galaxies, including our own, together. Yet we cannot see it directly and have yet to make any detection that helps us understand its nature. Put simply, we know Dark Matter is there, but we do not know what it is! What we do know is that the Standard Model of particle physics that explains so accurately most of what we do observe cannot help us - it provides no candidates that fit the bill. The detection of Dark Matter will not only tell us what much of our Universe is made of, it will also open the door to physics beyond the Standard Model, bringing down the veil between us and a deeper understanding of the Universe and our place within it. The effort to detect Dark Matter is worldwide - it is truly one of the most important scientific missions of our time.Piecing together all the evidence, our best theories tell us Dark Matter is made up of tiny particles that that pervade the Universe but rarely interact - millions of Dark Matter particles are passing harmlessly through you as you read this right now. Just occasionally one of them may bounce off the nucleus of an atom, giving it a tiny kick of energy. Observing such a 'direct' scatter is the only way to be sure that we have seen Dark Matter from our own galaxy; born in the Big Bang and present ever since. But to have any hope of seeing such tiny, rare signals requires experiments like no other: large detectors, sensitive to the recoil of a single atom, constructed from the most radio-pure materials and buried deep under the surface of the Earth.LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) will be the largest and most advanced experiment ever built in the direct search for Dark Matter. LZ will come online in 2019 and operate for 3 years in a former gold mine turned science laboratory 1.5 km underground in S. Dakota, USA. I am a leading researcher in the LZ experiment, responsible for the simulations that helped us to design it; that model the level of 'background' from Standard Model processes that may mask Dark Matter signatures; and that establish the experiment's science reach. LZ will be over 10 times more sensitive than earlier experiments and its unprecedented scale and ultra-low background environment will herald a new era in direct searches. In addition to exploring the bulk of the remaining uncharted territory in search of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), the most popular candidate for dark matter, LZ will now have sensitivity and discovery potential to a whole host of equally well-motivated alternative (non-WIMP) Dark Matter candidates and other physics beyond the Standard Model. Key to these searches is my expertise in modelling background processes, in exploiting multiple signal channels across the full energy range available to LZ, and in developing software to recognise complex signals from wholly unexpected physics. I will take leading roles in the WIMP and alternative model searches from LZ to uncover groundbreaking discoveries.Alongside physics analyses and software, I have developed new hardware capability in the UK with world-class mass-spectrometry to measure trace radioactivity in materials. This technique is crucial to building any future experiment needed to confirm discovery, perform high-precision measurements of signal, or explore the last of the available parameter space available for WIMPs. Such an experiment would have incredible sensitivity to the alternative models and beyond Standard Model physics, such as neutrino-less double beta decay. My mass-spectrometry research will meet the stringent radio-purity needs for future generation experiments and feed the background model upon which all the science rests.

我们在宇宙中看到的一切只是其质量的一小部分。大多数令人难以置信的85％是“黑暗” - 我们对此一无所知。当它允许星系形成时，我们可以推断出这种神秘的“暗物质”在早期的宇宙中的作用，并且我们可以在今天持有星系（包括我们自己的星系）时观察到它的引力效应。但是，我们无法直接看到它，还没有进行任何有助于我们理解其本质的检测。简而言之，我们知道暗物质在那里，但我们不知道它是什么！我们所知道的是，粒子物理学的标准模型如此准确地解释了我们所观察到的大多数内容，这无济于事 - 它不提供适合账单的候选人。对暗物质的检测不仅会告诉我们我们宇宙的构成是什么，而且还将打开超出标准模型的物理学的大门，使我们之间的面纱和对宇宙及其在其中的位置的更深入了解。检测到暗物质的努力是在全球范围内的 - 它确实是我们时代最重要的科学任务之一。结合所有证据，我们最好的理论告诉我们，深色物质是由宇宙遍布宇宙但很少相互作用的微小粒子组成的 - 数百万的暗物质粒子在您现在读到的时都会无害。偶尔会有一个可能从原子的核中反弹，从而使其能量很小。观察这种“直接”散射是确保我们从自己的星系中看到暗物质的唯一方法。出生于大爆炸，从那以后。但是，有希望看到如此微小的罕见信号需要像其他无与伦比的实验：大型检测器，对单个原子的后坐力敏感，该原子是用最无线电校正材料构建的，并将其埋在地球表面深处。Lux-Zeplin（LZ）将是有史以来最大，最先进的实验，在直接搜索暗物质中构建。 LZ将于2019年上线，并在美国S. Dakota的地下1.5公里的一家以前的金矿转变为3年。我是LZ实验的主要研究人员，负责帮助我们设计它的模拟；该模拟可能掩盖暗物质签名的标准模型过程的“背景”级别；并建立了实验的科学范围。 LZ的敏感性将比早期实验高10倍，并且其前所未有的规模和超低背景环境将为直接搜索时代带来新的时代。除了探索剩余的未知领域以寻找弱相互作用的巨大颗粒（WIMPS），这是最受欢迎的暗物质候选人，LZ现在将具有敏感性和发现潜力，这些敏感性和发现潜力可能是许多同样动机的替代方案（非WIMP）的暗物质候选人和其他标准模型以外的其他物理学。这些搜索的关键是我在建模背景过程中，利用LZ可用的全能范围的多个信号通道以及开发软件以识别来自完全意外物理的复杂信号的专业知识。我将在WIMP和从LZ的替代模型搜索中扮演领先的角色，从而发现了开创性的发现。同时物理学分析和软件，我在英国开发了新的硬件能力，并具有世界一流的质谱法，以测量材料中的痕量放射性。该技术对于建立确认发现，进行高精度测量或探索可用于WIMP的最后一个可用参数空间所需的未来实验至关重要。这样的实验对替代模型以及超越标准模型物理（例如无中微子双β衰减）具有令人难以置信的敏感性。我的质谱研究将满足未来一代实验的严格无线电需求，并为所有科学所依据的背景模型提供了背景模型。

项目成果

Background determination for the LUX-ZEPLIN dark matter experiment

LUX-ZEPLIN 暗物质实验的背景测定

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.108.012010
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Physical Review D
• 影响因子: 5
• 作者: Aalbers J

Nuclear recoil response of liquid xenon and its impact on solar 8B neutrino and dark matter searches

液态氙的核反冲响应及其对太阳 8B 中微子和暗物质搜索的影响

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.108.022007
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Physical Review D
• 影响因子: 5
• 作者: Xiang X

Search for new physics in low-energy electron recoils from the first LZ exposure

从第一次 LZ 暴露中寻找低能电子反冲的新物理

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.108.072006
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Physical Review D
• 影响因子: 5
• 作者: Aalbers J