Thesis

Development of data processing modules and analysis algorithms for the LUX and LZ dark matter direct search experiments

• Call:

  IDPASC Portugal - PHD Programme 2014

• Academic Year:

  2014 /2015

• Domain:

  Astroparticle Physics

• Supervisor:

  Alexandre Lindote

• Co-Supervisor:

  Vladimir Solovov

• Institution:

  Universidade de Coimbra

• Host Institution:

  Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas

• Abstract:

  The observational evidence for the existence of a non-baryonic, non-luminous and non-relativistic component of the universe, accounting for ~80% of its total mass, has been strengthened in recent years. However, the nature and origin of this dark matter are still unknown. One of the strongest candidates are Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), expected to be detectable by looking at nuclear recoils from their elastic scattering with nuclei. 2-phase (liquid/gas) xenon detectors are the leading technology in direct WIMP search, and are used by the two most sensitive experiments in the world -- XENON-100 an LUX. LUX performed a first scientific run in 2013 with the goal of demonstrating its sensitivity. Despite the short duration of this run (85 days), it was able to set the most stringent limits ever to the WIMP-nucleon interaction. The LIP-Coimbra team joined the LUX collaboration in 2010, after working in the ZEPLIN detectors since 2005. We are also part of the LZ collaboration, formed by merging the ZEPLIN and LUX teams, which proposes to build a new xenon detector with a mass of 7 tonnes with a sensitivity more than 1000 times better than todays best. The LZ project was recently selected as one of only two WIMP search experiments to receive support from the United States government for construction of the detector and science operations. In this PhD project, the student will be integrated in an international collaboration and work in state-of-the-art detectors. He/she will be supported by a team with a large experience in all aspects of this type of experiment - namely, and more relevant for this work, in data acquisition systems, pulse and event analysis, development of high-level analysis filters and Monte Carlo simulation. While most of the tasks will be performed in the LIP-Coimbra facilities, the year long second science run of LUX will occur during this project, so the student is expected to work on site, in the Sanford Laboratory (USA), for periods of up to 1 month, during the calibration of the detector and also during the acquisition of WIMP search data.