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I have worked for over two years on a project called LUX
(Large Underground Xenon detector), in which particle physicists hope to directly detect dark
matter. Physicists don't know what dark matter is, but this experiment is valid for a subset of
dark matter candidates called WIMPs, or Weakly Interacting Massive Particles.
Astronomical observations show that dark matter is present in the universe, and in fact makes up more mass in the
universe than all other "normal" matter. However, the "Standard Model" of particle physics does not definitively
predict a dark matter particle. There are WIMP theories, including extensions (like
SUSY) to the Standard Model
that provide potential WIMP candidates. However, dark matter has not been detected, and LUX
could be the first to do it!
The LUX detector is a large tank of cold liquid xenon sitting a mile underground in the Black Hills
of South Dakota (to shield it from cosmic rays). If dark matter is a WIMP, every so often one will
scatter off a xenon nucleus and deposit energy, and we can analyze these energy signatures to determine the likelihood that
what we see is indeed dark matter.
The picture on the right is part of a multi-blackboard collage created by some fellow physics students,
who find it necessary to dramaticize my hunt for WIMPs. These witty images
depict myself in various adventures, trying to track down the elusive dark matter.