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Collaboration

LUX-Zeplin

LUX-Zeplin

LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a next generation dark matter experiment, selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) as one of the three ‘G2’ (for Generation 2) dark matter experiments. Located at the 4850′ level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, SD, the experiment utilizes a two-phase time projection chamber (TPC), containing seven active tonnes of liquid xenon, to search for dark matter particles. Auxiliary veto detectors, including a liquid scintillator outer detector, improve rejection of unwanted background events in the central region of the detector. LZ has been designed to improve on the sensitivity of the prior generation of experiment by a factor of 50 or more. [Text and image from https://lz.lbl.gov/]

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Name Role Affiliations Email Phone Office Centers Research topics
Carmen Carmona Benitez Carmen Carmona Benitez Faculty Physics mzc267@psu.edu +1 814 865 6476 320D Osmond Laboratory CMA Dark Matter, Neutrinos
Yen-Ting Chin Yen-Ting Chin Graduate Student Physics ypc5402@psu.edu 18144248968 Osmond Laboratory CMA Dark Matter
Jack Genovesi Jack Genovesi Postdoc Physics jgg27@psu.edu 8455197418 320A Osmond Laboratory IGC Dark Matter
Katherine Wild Katherine Wild Graduate Student Physics kvw5673@psu.edu (954) 225-1854 108 Osmond Laboratory IGC Dark Matter
Wei Zha Wei Zha Graduate Student Physics wpz5141@psu.edu – 114 Whitmore Laboratory IGC Dark Matter
Luiz de Viveiros Luiz de Viveiros Faculty Physics lad57@psu.edu +1 814 865 7533 320E Osmond Laboratory CMA Dark Matter, Neutrinos
Name Role Affiliations Email Phone Office Centers Research topics
Daniel Kodroff Daniel Kodroff Graduate Student Physics dsk192@psu.edu 0000000000 Basement Osmond Laboratory CMA Dark Matter, Neutrinos
About our wordmark
Monica Rincon Ramirez

The IGC wordmark was created by Monica Rincon Ramirez while she was a graduate student at the Institute. Monica enjoys drawing new connections between fundamental theory and observations. Her graduate work included general relativity, loop quantum gravity, and quantum fields in cosmological backgrounds; her thesis focused on effective quantum corrections to gravitational phenomena from spinfoams and applications to cosmology. She received her PhD in 2024.

The wordmark symbolizes the scope of research at the IGC. The base represents quantum gravity, evoking the quantum geometrical picture from spinfoams and loop quantum gravity — approaches studied at the Center for Fundamental Theory. The middle shows galaxies embedded in a smooth surface characteristic of spacetime in general relativity and the larger physical scales studied at the Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology. The top curves to an extreme representing a supermassive black hole accompanied by an energetic jet, with a binary black hole pair nearby — the high-energy phenomena studied at the Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics.