Research

Our group at Purdue conducts research on the direct detection of dark matter, one of the biggest mysteries in modern physics. Cosmological observations indicate that dark matter makes up approximately 85% of all matter in the universe, yet its fundamental nature and interactions with ordinary matter remain unknown. Although a few decade of experimental effort have placed strong constraints on possible dark matter properties, large regions of viable parameter space are still unexplored.

A major focus of our work is the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment, located 4850 feet underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota. LZ uses a dual-phase time projection chamber (TPC) containing seven active tonnes of liquid xenon to search for dark matter. It currently has the world’s leading sensitivity to weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), one of the most well-motivated dark matter candidates. Beyond WIMPs, we also study neutrinos, rare nuclear processes, and other signatures of new physics using the LZ’s versatile instrumentation.

In parallel with our work on LZ, our group is developing novel experimental technologies aimed at probing previously inaccessible regions of dark matter parameter space. Together, these efforts seek to advance our understanding of the universe at its most fundamental level.

We are currently seeking motivated students and postdocs to join several ongoing research projects:

• Improving detector background simulations for the LZ experiment 
• Constraining new physics models using the LZ dataset
• Photosensor calibration and testing beyond commercially rated specifications at very low temperatures
• R&D on novel dark matter detection technologies