"Dark matter" is thought to be the predominant form of matter in the universe, but so far it has eluded direct detection. Learn more about this mysterious substance?and talk live by video with scientists looking for it in a deep underground laboratory?during a ?Deep Science in the Black Hills? presentation at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (SDSMT).
The Rapid City Cosmopolitan Club is sponsoring the event. Join the club for lunch at the Surbeck Center at 501 E. St. Joseph St., on the SDSMT campus, at noon on Monday, Nov.4. The presentation is free. The optional lunch is $10 at the door or $8.50 in advance, online at http://interact.sdsmt.edu/conference/registration-DeepScience.htm.
The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment is operating 4,850 feet underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (Sanford Lab) in Lead, S.D. Deep labs protect sensitive experiments like LUX from cosmic radiation, and the Sanford Lab provides one of the quietest environments in the world. LUX is in a laboratory called the Davis Campus, named for the late Ray Davis, who earned a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics for an experiment he installed at Homestake in the mid-1960s. LUX is installed in the same experiment hall excavated for Davis. Physicists will take the audience on a short tour of the underground lab, then open the floor to questions about their world-leading experiment.
The Davis Campus also is home to the Majorana Demonstrator experiment, under construction in an adjacent experiment hall. Majorana is looking for a rare form of radioactive decay, which could help physicists explain the origin of matter. LUX and Majorana each are looking for answers to some of the most challenging questions facing 21st century physics.
The event is sponsored by the Sanford Lab, the Rapid City Cosmopolitan Club, the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and the Digital Dakota Network. Download a PDF flyer for the event from the hyperlink at left. The Sanford Lab is owned and operated by the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority, with support from the Department of Energy. The Sanford Lab's mission is to enable safe and compelling underground research and to foster transformational science education. For more information, contact Sanford Lab Communications Director Bill Harlan (contact information above).