Researchers re-calibrate world’s most sensitive dark matter detector

The main function of this dark matter detector is to identify collisions between xenon atoms and the Wimps (sub-atomic particles) inside the detector.

Dark matter makes up the majority of the matter in the universe – around 85 percent, while the visible matter is the rest 15 percent. The device is created to measure weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, a leading dark matter candidate. With improvement in its sensitivity, LUX will have better chances to detect sub-atomic particles called Wimps.

When you’re looking for something, sometimes you need to first rule out the locations where it isn’t, like first checking your trousers pockets for those lost vehicle keys. These interactions would be “about a million-million-million-million times” weaker than neutrons according to Rick Gaitskell, a professor of physics at Brown University and co-spokesperson for the LUX experiment. Unfortunately, up until now, the existence of dark matter was yet to be proved through scientific facts.

Even though astrophysicists have not yet found dark matter, scientists from 19 research universities and national laboratories in the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Portugal say we are one step closer, thanks to a large-scale physics experiments.

Professor Alex Murphy, of the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh revealed their team has now developed “many new calibration techniques and methods of analysis” and have better chances of detecting dark matter.

LUX comprises ⅓ ton of liquid xenon surrounded with ultra-sensitive light detectors. Scientists think that dark matter particles likely lost their thermal equilibrium from the highly dense plasma that made up the universe in its early days.

Despite being the most dominant form of matter in the universe, dark matter is now invisible to current forms of detection and was discovered due to its gravitational influence on the rotation of galaxies. However, its sensitivity has enabled researchers to all but rule out vast mass ranges where dark matter particles could exist.

LUX is located under 4,850 feet of rock which protects him from cosmic radiation that could interfere with dark matter’s signal.

The neutron experiments help to calibrate the detector for interactions with the xenon nucleus.

Some of the new upgrades received by LUX include the injection of tritiated methane and of krypton, two radioactive gases which will help LUX to distinguish better signals produced by radioactivity from the environment and a potential signal of dark matter. “It’s just that dark matter particles interact very much more weakly-about a million-million-million-million times more weakly”, Gaitskell says.

“We have looked for dark matter particles during the experiment’s first three-month run, but are exploiting new calibration techniques better pinning down how they would appear to our detector” Alastair Currie, a physicist at Imperial College London who lead the research, said in a press release. It is created to spot collisions between Wimps and xenon atoms inside the detector.

“And so the search continues”, McKinsey said. “We will be very excited to see if any dark matter particles have shown themselves in the new data”.

The Sanford Lab is a South Dakota-owned facility.

Planning for the next-generation dark matter experiment at Sanford Lab is already under way.

LUX only has a few more months to make good on its improved sensitivity. Compared to LUX’s one-third-ton of liquid xenon, LZ would have a 10-ton liquid xenon target, which will fit inside the same 72,000-gallon tank of pure water used by LUX. The LZ experiment is expected to achieve over 100 times the sensitivity of LUX.