Do WIMPs Rule? The LUX & LZ Experiments and the Search for Cosmic Dark Matter

Dark Matter remains a profound mystery at the intersection of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. One of the leading candidates, the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle, or WIMP, may be detectable using terrestrial particle detectors. Recent technological advances are enabling very rapid increases in sensitivity in the search for these particles. We will talk about the LUX experiment, a liquid xenon time projection chamber, which currently holds the best upper limit over much of the mass range. We will also discuss plans for a larger follow up experiment, LZ, which will just begin to measure a background neutrino signal that will set a fundamental limit our ability to search for WIMP dark matter.

Speakers: Daniel Akerib and Tom Shutt