PUBLICATIONS

I have highlighted three of my more recent and prominent publications with a complete list at the bottom of the page.

SIGNAL YIELDS, ENERGY RESOLUTION, AND RECOMBINATION FLUCTUATIONS IN LIQUID XENON

This work presents an analysis of monoenergetic electronic recoil peaks in the dark-matter-search and calibration data from the first underground science run of the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) detector. I am the corresponding author for this LUX publication (this is the equivalent of a first-author publication in other subfields). Liquid xenon charge and light yields for electronic recoil energies between 5.2 and 661.7 keV are measured, as well as the energy resolution for the LUX detector at those same energies. Additionally, there is an interpretation of existing measurements and descriptions of electron-ion recombination fluctuations in liquid xenon as limiting cases of a more general liquid xenon recombination fluctuation model. Measurements of the standard deviation of these fluctuations at monoenergetic electronic recoil peaks exhibit a linear dependence on the number of ions for energy deposits up to 661.7 keV, consistent with previous LUX measurements between 2 and 16 keV with tritium. We highlight similarities in liquid xenon recombination for electronic and nuclear recoils with a comparison of recombination fluctuations measured with low-energy calibration data.

RESULTS FROM A SEARCH FOR DARK MATTER IN THE COMPLETE LUX EXPOSURE

We report constraints on spin-independent weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP)-nucleon scattering using a 3.35×10^4 kg day exposure of the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment. A dual-phase xenon time projection chamber with 250 kg of active mass is operated at the Sanford Underground Research Facility under Lead, South Dakota (USA). With roughly fourfold improvement in sensitivity for high WIMP masses relative to our previous results, this search yields no evidence of WIMP nuclear recoils. At a WIMP mass of 50 GeV c^−2, WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross sections above 2.2×10^−46 cm^2 are excluded at the 90% confidence level. When combined with the previously reported LUX exposure, this exclusion strengthens to 1.1×10^−46 cm^2 at 50 GeV c^−2.

PROJECTED WIMP SENSITIVITY OF THE LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) DARK MATTER EXPERIMENT

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 tons, 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 WIMP sensitivity 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-ton fiducial mass, LZ is projected to exclude at 90% confidence level spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross sections above 1.6×10^−48 cm^2 for a 40 GeV/c^2 mass WIMP. Additionally, a 5σ 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 2.7×10^−43 cm^2 (8.1×10^−42 cm^2) for a 40 GeV/c^2 mass WIMP is expected. With construction well underway, LZ is on track for underground installation at SURF in 2019 and will start collecting data in 2020.

Publications: Publications

COMPLETE WORKS

LZ Publications:

D.S. Akerib et al. (LZ Collaboration), “Projected WIMP sensitivity of the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter experiment,” arXiv:1802.06039, 2018. Submitted to Phys. Rev. D.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LZ Collaboration), “Identification of radiopure titanium for the LZ dark matter experiment and future rare event searches,” Astropart. Phys., 96, 2017.

LUX Publications:

D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “Liquid xenon scintillation measurements and pulse shape discrimination in the LUX dark matter detector," arXiv:1802.06162, 2018. Submitted to Phys. Rev. D.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “Ultra-Low Energy Calibration of LUX Detector using Xe-127 Electron Capture,” Phys. Rev. D 96, 112011, 2017.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “3D Modeling of Electric Fields in the LUX Detector,” JINST 12, P11022, 2017.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “Kr-83m calibration of the 2013 LUX dark matter search,”, Phys. Rev. D 96, 112009, 2017.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “First searches for axions and axionlike particles with the LUX experiment,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 261301, 2017.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “Limits on spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon cross section obtained from the complete LUX exposure,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 251302, 2017.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “Results from a search for dark matter in the complete LUX exposure,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 021303, 2017.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “Signal yields, energy resolution, and recombination fluctuations in liquid xenon,” Phys. Rev. D 95, 012008, 2017.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “Low-energy (0.7 - 74 keV) nuclear recoil calibration of the LUX dark matter experiment using D-D neutron scattering kinematics,” arXiv:1608.05381, 2016. Submitted to Phys. Rev. C.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “Results on the spin-dependent scattering of weakly interacting massive particles on nucleons from the Run 3 data of the LUX experiment,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 161302, 2016.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “Improved limits on scattering of weakly interacting massive particles from reanalysis of 2013 LUX data,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 161301, 2016.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “Tritium calibration of the LUX dark matter experiment,” Phys. Rev. D 93, 072009, 2016.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “FPGA-based trigger system for the LUX dark matter experiment,” NIM A818, 57-67, 2016.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LZ Collaboration), “LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Conceptual Design Report,” arXiv:1509.02910, 2015.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “First results from the LUX dark matter experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 091303, 2014.
D.S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), “The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) Experiment,” NIM A704, 111-126, 2013.

Publications from undergraduate research:

D. Battefeld, T. Battefeld, J. T. Giblin, Jr., and E. K. Pease, “Observable signatures of inflaton decays,” JCAP 1102:024, 2011.
E. K. Pease, B. J. Dober, and S. K. Remillard, “Synchronous measurement of even and odd order inter- modulation distortion at the resonant frequency of a superconducting resonator,” Rev. Sci. Instr. 81, 024701, 2010.

Other:

Popular coverage of my research in The Guardian, Scientific American, The New York Times, and elsewhere

My INSPIRE-HEP profile

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