Speaker
Description
The LZ (LUX-ZEPLIN) collaboration operates a 7-tonne active mass, two-phase xenon TPC (Time Projection Chamber) surrounded by a multi-layer OD (Outer Detector) serving as an anti-coincidence veto, in order to find the elusive dark matter, at SURF (Sanford Underground Research Facility), the former location of the Homestake gold mine in the town of Lead, South Dakota. In service of the search for dark matter in the form of a WIMP (Weakly Interacting Massive Particle), a leading dark matter candidate, as well as axion-like particles, Boron-8 coherent neutrino scattering, supernova neutrinos, neutrinoless double-beta decay, and many other potential physics channels, LZ’s scientists, engineers, and students must perform extensive calibrations in order to solidify a comprehensive understanding of the scintillation and ionization channels, for both nuclear recoils and electron recoils, both as possible signals and as backgrounds, across a wide range of energies, from sub-keV to MeV. I will provide a summary of the unique features and excellent performance of LZ’s state-of-the-art calibration systems that have played key roles in enabling LZ’s world-leading results across different searches. The comprehensive descriptions of the LZ calibration systems, and the Monte Carlo simulation efforts which support the results, will ideally serve as valuable references for future endeavors.
