Phd project: The LZ experiment
Supervisor: Prof. Chamkaur Ghag
Dark Matter accounts for 85% of the mass in the Universe yet its nature remains unknown. LZ is the most sensitive experiment in the search for galactic dark matter having recently published the world-leading constraints on dark matter interactions from its first engineering run that established operational performance as originally designed. LZ has now begun taking primary science data. Over the next 3 years LZ will explore entirely new electroweak parameter space, reaching an order of magnitude further than the state-of-the-art, towards a first discovery or constraints on the leading dark matter theories. The successful applicant will take a highly active role in the analyses from these datasets with genuine discovery potential across a range of dark sector, exotic neutrino and Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics. In addition to analysis of datasets the project will develop techniques in Monte Carlo simulations, statistical inference, and data intensive science. The project will also involve some on-site operation and calibrations of LZ on-site at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. Finally, the project presents opportunity to engage in detector R&D across a range of topics towards the construction of the future global xenon-based rare event search observatory being developed by the new XLZD consortium made up of the LZ, XENON, and DARWIN collaborations who collectively developed and pioneered the world-leading xenon time projection chamber (TPC) technology.
The UCL Dar Matter Group also works with quantum sensors to probe models of ultra-light and wave-like dark matter, as well as development of cutting-edge low-background radio-assay facilities. The PhD student would have opportunity to engage in these areas should they choose.
More details on LZ at UCL can be found here.
For more details please contact c.ghag at ucl.ac.uk