What exactly is dark matter and what do we know about its nature? Join our lecture to learn about how astronomers build underground detectors to search for dark matter signals!

Location: Hewlett Teaching Center, Room 200 & YouTube

Title: Particle-like Dark Matter: When All Other Lights Go Out

Speaker: Dr. Jelle Aalbers (KIPAC/Stanford University)

Abstract: Deep in underground laboratories sit some of humanity’s most sensitive detectors. Their purpose is to discover dark matter, an unknown substance that makes up ~80% of the mass in our universe, but whose nature remains shrouded in mystery. New particles with extremely weak interactions have been proposed as natural candidates for dark matter, and physicists are actively building detectors to search for them. In this lecture, Dr. Jelle Aalbers will discuss efforts to build and operate large detectors that search for rare small light flashes from dark matter particles bouncing off of regular atoms. He will present what we have learned so far from these experiments, including preliminary results from the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment, a dark matter detector filled with 7 tons of liquid xenon in a South Dakota gold mine.

This event will be offered in a hybrid format. Live stream URL can be found at the bottom of the EventBrite registration confirmation email.