LUX-ZEPLIN Collaboration

LUX-ZEPLIN Collaboration
Name	LUX-ZEPLIN Collaboration
Established	2019
Location	Sanford Underground Research Facility, Lead, South Dakota, United States
Type	International scientific collaboration
Focus	Dark matter direct detection
Members	Institutions from United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, and others

LUX-ZEPLIN Collaboration

The LUX-ZEPLIN Collaboration is an international experimental consortium formed to operate a next-generation direct detection dark matter experiment based at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. The collaboration unites scientists and engineers from national laboratories such as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and Brookhaven National Laboratory with university groups from University of California, Berkeley, University of Oxford, Imperial College London, University of Edinburgh, and partners including University of South Dakota and Case Western Reserve University. The project builds on prior efforts including the Large Underground Xenon experiment, ZEPLIN-III, and international programs such as XENONnT and PandaX.

Overview

The collaboration brings together expertise from institutions like Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of Chicago, and Yale University to deploy a multi-tonne liquid xenon time projection chamber (TPC) descended from designs used by LUX (experiment) and ZEPLIN (series). The experiment sits below the Homestake Mine infrastructure and benefits from deep underground shielding similar to installations at Gran Sasso National Laboratory and SNOLAB. The consortium includes instrumentation teams from University of Wisconsin–Madison, Carnegie Mellon University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and international collaborators such as Portugal's CENTRA and Sweden's Uppsala University.

Collaboration and Organization

Governance follows a collaboration board model with representatives from participating institutions including Brookhaven National Laboratory, University of California, Davis, and University of Manchester. Technical coordination is overseen by groups at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, while analysis working groups include members from University of California, Los Angeles, Princeton University, Columbia University, University of Minnesota, and University of California, Santa Barbara. Engineering and cryogenics draw on expertise from CERN-affiliated vendors and suppliers used by ATLAS and CMS projects, while simulation and software integrate frameworks developed in conjunction with teams experienced in GEANT4 work for LHC experiments. Funding and oversight involve agencies such as the United States Department of Energy, UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, and national research councils in partner countries.

Scientific Goals and Detector Design

The primary scientific objective is to search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) via nuclear recoils in liquid xenon, leveraging the TPC to measure both scintillation (S1) and electroluminescence (S2) signals, a technique similar to that used by XENON1T and PandaX-II. Secondary goals include searches for axion-like particles, neutrinoless double beta decay backgrounds, and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering studies relevant to programs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory. The detector uses photomultiplier tubes sourced from manufacturers with histories in Super-Kamiokande and SNO instrumentation, low-background materials vetted by teams from Imperial College London and University of Edinburgh, and active veto systems akin to those in DAMA/LIBRA and COSINE-100 experiments to reject cosmogenic backgrounds.

Construction and Commissioning

Construction consolidated components built at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, assembled at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory facilities, and transported to the underground cavern at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. Commissioning employed campaigns coordinated with Homestake Mining Company-derived logistics and safety protocols used for deep underground science at Gran Sasso and SNOLAB. Cryostat fabrication followed standards from industrial partners experienced with ITER and large cryogenic projects; cleanroom integration drew teams from University of Oxford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Calibration systems adapted techniques from CDMS and DEAP to introduce internal and external sources while minimizing long-lived activation that impacted earlier efforts like ZEPLIN-III.

Data Acquisition and Analysis

The data acquisition architecture leverages readout and trigger designs developed in collaboration with groups from University of California, Berkeley and Yale University, employing pipelines compatible with analysis tools used by IceCube and NOvA collaborations. Data quality, event reconstruction, and background modeling use Monte Carlo frameworks and statistical methods shared with XENONnT, PandaX-4T, and neutrino experiments at Fermilab. Analysis working groups focus on signal discrimination, blind-analysis protocols, and systematic uncertainty assessments, with cross-validation against results from PICO and SuperCDMS. Computing resources are provided via collaborations with National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center and regional centers used by LHC collaborations.

Results and Publications

Early commissioning and science runs produced publications and conference presentations at venues including International Conference on High Energy Physics, Neutrino Physics Conference, and meetings of the American Physical Society. Results compared sensitivity projections against limits set by LUX (experiment), XENON1T, and PandaX-II, with collaboration papers authored by teams from Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Imperial College London, and University of Edinburgh. Peer-reviewed articles appear in journals where groups from Princeton University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, and Yale University frequently publish.

Future Plans and Upgrades

Planned upgrades and extended runs involve enhanced low-background material campaigns drawing on techniques from EXO-200 and nEXO projects, potential photodetector replacements inspired by developments at Super-Kamiokande and Hyper-Kamiokande, and collaborative analysis efforts with XENONnT and PandaX-4T toward combined limits. The collaboration continues outreach and training programs with universities including University of California, Davis, University of Minnesota, Case Western Reserve University, and University of South Dakota to build the next generation of experimentalists familiar with infrastructure at Sanford Underground Research Facility and international facilities such as SNOLAB and Gran Sasso.

Category:Particle physics collaborations