Physics and Engineering Physics Colloquium

Matthew Szydagis, Ph.D., of the State University of New York at Albany, will present, “Lab Detection of Dark Matter From The Cosmos.”

The nature of dark matter has remained an enduring enigma for over eight decades now, for both cosmology and astroparticle physics. The majority of cosmic mass, over 85%, does not shine in the stars nor exist in atomic form. A continued lack of unambiguous evidence from a direct detection experiment of the traditional Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) has led to a major thrust to consider masses both higher and lower than before, driven by many hypotheses and models.

Szydagis will summarize his work on the LUX (Large Underground Xenon) experiment and its multi–ton scale successor, LZ, currently under construction underground. He will also discuss the microphysics simulations of NEST (Noble Element Simulation Technique) used to make predictions for signals in a liquid xenon–based detector, and emphasize new research and development at Albany using water to look for dark matter lighter than the canonical WIMP particle. This research and development effort relies critically upon nanotechnology for water purification.