Projected WIMP sensitivity of the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter experiment
2018
LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a next generation dark matter direct detection experiment that will operate 4850 feet underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, USA. Using a two-phase xenon detector with an active mass of 7
tonnes, LZ will search primarily for low-energy interactions with
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles(
WIMPs), which are hypothesized to make up the dark matter in our
galactic halo. In this paper, the projected
WIMPsensitivity of LZ is presented based on the latest background estimates and simulations of the detector. For a 1000 live day run using a 5.6
tonnefiducial mass, LZ is projected to exclude at 90% confidence level spin-independent
WIMP-nucleon cross sections above $1.6 \times 10^{-48}$ cm$^{2}$ for a 40 $\mathrm{GeV}/c^{2}$ mass
WIMP. Additionally, a $5\sigma$ discovery potential is projected reaching cross sections below the existing and projected exclusion limits of similar experiments that are currently operating. For spin-dependent
WIMP-neutron(-proton) scattering, a sensitivity of $2.7 \times 10^{-43}$ cm$^{2}$ ($8.1 \times 10^{-42}$ cm$^{2}$) for a 40 $\mathrm{GeV}/c^{2}$ mass
WIMPis expected. With construction well underway, LZ is on track for underground installation at SURF in 2019 and will start collecting data in 2020.
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