LUX Detector: Photomultiplier
4,850 ft (1,478 m) underground
Nikon D4 + 24-70mm f/2.8G | Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake, Lead, SD, 28 Aug 2012
Do not use without permission.
The Large Underground Xenon Detector (LUX) is a 350 kg two-phase liquid xenon detector of dark matter particles. Liquid xenon both scintillates and becomes ionized when hit by particles (e.g. photons, neutrons and potentially dark matter). The ratio of scintillation over ionization energy caused by the collision provides a way of identifying the interacting particle. The leading theoretical dark matter candidate, the weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP), could be identified in this way.
Dark matter comprises most of the matter in the universe but its nature has yet to be determined. One of the leading candidates for the non-baryonic dark matter is the WIMP. WIMPs are expected to interact only with nuclei. Most of the events observed in noble liquid detectors such as LUX will be photons which interact predominantly with the electrons, which result in a different ionization signature than that of the WIMP nuclear collisions. This difference allows such detectors to remove much of the background events. [Source: Wikipedia]
LUX Detector: Photomultiplier
4,850 ft (1,478 m) underground
Nikon D4 + 24-70mm f/2.8G | Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake, Lead, SD, 28 Aug 2012
Do not use without permission.
The Large Underground Xenon Detector (LUX) is a 350 kg two-phase liquid xenon detector of dark matter particles. Liquid xenon both scintillates and becomes ionized when hit by particles (e.g. photons, neutrons and potentially dark matter). The ratio of scintillation over ionization energy caused by the collision provides a way of identifying the interacting particle. The leading theoretical dark matter candidate, the weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP), could be identified in this way.
Dark matter comprises most of the matter in the universe but its nature has yet to be determined. One of the leading candidates for the non-baryonic dark matter is the WIMP. WIMPs are expected to interact only with nuclei. Most of the events observed in noble liquid detectors such as LUX will be photons which interact predominantly with the electrons, which result in a different ionization signature than that of the WIMP nuclear collisions. This difference allows such detectors to remove much of the background events. [Source: Wikipedia]