Physicists like me don't fully understand what makes up about 83% of the matter of the universe—something we call "dark matter." But with a tank full of xenon buried nearly a mile under South Dakota, we might one day be ...
General Physics
Aug 9, 2023
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Sitting a mile below ground in an abandoned gold mine in South Dakota is a gigantic cylinder holding 10 tons of purified liquid xenon closely watched by more than 250 scientists around the world. That tank of xenon is the ...
General Physics
Sep 15, 2022
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Most of the remaining components needed to fully assemble an underground dark matter-search experiment called LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) arrived at the project's South Dakota home during a rush of deliveries in June.
General Physics
Jul 17, 2019
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The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter detector, which will soon start its search for the elusive particles thought to account for a majority of matter in the universe, had its first set of "eyes" delivered Thursday.
General Physics
Dec 18, 2018
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Experimental results from the XENON1T dark matter detector limit the effective size of dark matter particles to 4.1X10-47 square centimeters—one-trillionth of one-trillionth of a centimeter squared—the most stringent ...
General Physics
May 30, 2018
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Results from its first run indicate that XENON1T is the most sensitive dark matter detector on Earth. The sensitivity of the detector—an underground sentinel awaiting a collision that would confirm a hypothesis—stems ...
General Physics
Aug 22, 2017
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"The best result on dark matter so far—and we just got started." This is how scientists behind XENON1T, now the most sensitive dark matter experiment world-wide, commented on their first result from a short 30-day run presented ...
General Physics
May 19, 2017
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The race is on to build the most sensitive U.S.-based experiment designed to directly detect dark matter particles. Department of Energy officials have formally approved a key construction milestone that will propel the project ...
General Physics
Feb 13, 2017
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LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ), a next-generation dark matter detector that will be at least 100 times more sensitive than its predecessor, has cleared another approval milestone and is on schedule to begin its deep-underground hunt for ...
General Physics
Sep 26, 2016
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Prototyping of a new, ultrasensitive "eye" for dark matter is making rapid progress at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory: Researchers and engineers have installed a small-scale version of the ...
General Physics
Jun 2, 2016
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