There are fewer places for dark matter particles to hide thanks to a detector located a mile underground in the northern Black Hills.
The Lux-Zeplin detector has narrowed down possibilities where these particles exist.
But the detector is reaching its capacity.
Think of the Lux Zeplin detector like a pool table. It holds 10 tons of liquid xenon to provide, dense transparent material for dark matter particles to potentially bump into. The hope is these particles, called WIMPS, will knock a xenon nucleus, like a cue ball in a game of pool.
As researchers increase the sensitivity of the detector, solar neutrinos will start to interfere with results. Neutrinos are the byproduct of nuclear fusion in the sun.
“Soon, those neutrinos will constitute a background in our search for dark matter. So, there’s a little bit of parameter space left," said Jaret Heise, the science director at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. "There’s a little bit of an area where we can still look for WIMP dark matter particles, before the neutrinos constitute a significant background.”
Dark matter does not emit, reflect or absorb light. It is estimated to make up 85 percent of mass in the universe but has never been directly detected. Officials say its mass contributes to the gravitational attraction that helps galaxies form and stay together.
LZ is a collaboration of roughly 250 scientists from 38 institutions across the world.
Heise said the LZ detector has about three years left of work. He said the research is moving fast and scientists are already focused on a next generation detector—that’s because as scientists get closer to discovering dark matter, they must be more precise.
“LZ, to continue its potential and fulfill its goal will run until late 2027 or early 2028. At that point the focus then changes to developing the next generation. You can continue to run the 10 tons of xenon for many more years, but the better return on investment is to invest in the larger, more sensitive instrument.”
The LZ detector will collect about 1,000 more days’ worth of data.
Earlier this month, SURF officials celebrated the opening of caverns for a highly anticipated neutrino experiment that seeks to understand why the particle changes over distance. Scientists think it may explain why there’s more matter than anti matter in the universe.
