NPA Seminar, Christian Wittweg, University of Zurich, “Recent Results and Status of the XENON Dark Matter Project”

The XENON Dark Matter Project uses xenon dual-phase time projection chambers for direct Dark Matter detection. With steadily growing target masses the XENON detectors set world-leading limits on WIMP-nucleon interactions over a broad mass range – most recently with XENON1T. Its unprecedentedly low backgrounds coupled with the tonne-year exposure also enabled searches for rare nuclear processes, the coherent elastic scattering of solar neutrinos and alternative Dark Matter candidates. Notably, an excess of low-energy electronic recoil events was observed and its origin is yet to be determined. This will be pursued with the successor experiment XENONnT. It is aimed at extending the WIMP sensitivity by more than an order of magnitude beyond current limits – with 20 times the exposure and 1/6th of its predecessor’s background. In this seminar I will highlight the recent XENON1T results and give an overview of XENONnT’s construction, status and physics reach.
In-person attendance will be capped at 20 people on a first-come, first-served basis, according to the current Yale policies.
More Information: https://covid19.yale.edu/campus-life/events-gatherings-meetings
Please email the host for the Zoom connection information.
Host: Michael Jewell
michael.jewell@yale.edu