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THE LUX DARK MATTER EXPERIMENT: DETECTOR PERFORMANCE AND ENERGY CALIBRATION

Phelps, Patrick

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Physics.
Dark matter, the mysterious substance that seems to make up most of the mass of the universe has never been detected in the laboratory. In this document I outline the current world’s leading experiment, LUX, to look for a class of dark matter, the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle. I outline the general principles of searching for dark matter through low background detectors and event rejection, I move on to a description of the LUX experiment and its performance, reviewing its internal structure and subsystems including a novel heat exchange system that expedited system readiness and resulted in a stable platform for WIMP searching. The LUX energy reconstruction is then examined, followed by a breakdown of signal fluctuations as a function of energy as part of our understanding of back- ground discrimination in this class of detectors. Finally, I review the first LUX WIMP search result, culminating in the world’s most sensitive limit on the spin- independent WIMP-nucleon cross section, before moving to a discussion of next steps in the search for dark matter for LUX and next generational experiments.
Daniel Akerib (Committee Chair)
Thomas Shutt (Advisor)
John Ruhl (Committee Member)
Stacy McGaugh (Committee Member)
191 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Phelps, P. (2014). THE LUX DARK MATTER EXPERIMENT: DETECTOR PERFORMANCE AND ENERGY CALIBRATION [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1404908222

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Phelps, Patrick. THE LUX DARK MATTER EXPERIMENT: DETECTOR PERFORMANCE AND ENERGY CALIBRATION. 2014. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1404908222.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Phelps, Patrick. "THE LUX DARK MATTER EXPERIMENT: DETECTOR PERFORMANCE AND ENERGY CALIBRATION." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1404908222

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)