First Results from the LZ Dark Matter Experiment

The fundamental nature of our universe is still mostly unknown: 84% of the matter in the universe is dark and qualitatively different to everything we understand via the Standard Model. Terrestrial experiments devoted to detecting interactions of dark matter particles have not yet seen a convincing signal, but we may be on the cusp of discovery. The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment (LZ), located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is the largest dark matter detector of its kind; it consists of a 7T liquid xenon target, an 2T active skin veto and a 17T gadolinium-loaded liquid scintillator neutron veto. Earlier this year, LZ performed its first search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) with an exposure of 60 live days, and set new world-leading limits. 

With future science runs, LZ will probe further into theoretically well-motivated regions of dark matter phase space to reach areas currently unexplored. In this seminar I will describe the LZ experiment, the analysis of data and results from the first science run, and discuss LZ’s future plans and physics reach.