Supervisors: Dr. Paul Scovell (Boulby/PPD) + Dr. Amy Cottle (University College London)

One of the biggest open questions in physics is “what is dark matter?" While we know that it makes up an incredible 85% of the matter in the Universe, we have no idea what this elusive substance consists of. XLZD is a proposed experiment which will attempt to directly detect dark matter. XLZD will be an order of magnitude more sensitive than current-generation experiments such as LZ, and will be the definitive WIMP search detector, delivering an historic first discovery, providing a high-statistics confirmation of signals in current detectors, or ruling out the standard WIMP hypothesis. XLZD will also have leading sensitivity to alternative (non-WIMP) dark matter models, neutrinoless double beta decay and other beyond-the-Standard Model physics.

The student will be starting at an exciting time during pre-construction with involvement in on-site activities at Boulby, the UK's deep underground science facility, and the potential host of XLZD. They will work on improving radioassay facilities that are co-managed by the UCL team and Boulby. These include state-of-the-art gamma spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and radon systems, all boasting world-class sensitivity, but in need of significant development via innovative hardware and software-based methods to meet the requirements for XLZD. They will perform hands-on radiopurity measurements of construction materials to characterise background sources to inform and develop a background model, critical to the success of any rare-event search experiment.

Complementary to the XLZD background model development, the student will have the opportunity to participate in the exploitation of LZ data to measure radon, neutron and gamma-ray backgrounds in-situ, as well as contribute to ongoing physics analyses. They could also be involved in performing XLZD sensitivity projections for a range of new physics models. The project will therefore be high impact, influencing the design and construction of XLZD and thus delivering a step change in its sensitivity and discovery potential.

For more details contact: Paul Scovell (paul.scovell@stfc .ac.uk) and Amy Cottle (a.cottle@ucl.ac.uk)