Title: First Data from DM-Ice17

Speaker: YANG Liang（University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign）

Moderator: CAO Jun

Time: 10:00AM, December 23, 2014

Place: Room C305, IHEP Main Building

Abstract:

Astrophysical observations have provided convincing evidence for the existence of dark matter, yet direct observation of the dark matter particles has not been conclusively established. DAMA experiment claimed to have observed the annual modulation signal of dark matter using NaI detectors at the Gran Sasso Lab in Italy. The DM-Ice project aims to conclusively test this claim with a new detector array at the South Pole. It will be one of the first direct dark matter detection experiments in the southern hemisphere. DM-Ice17 is a prototype 17 kg NaI detector deployed in the South Pole ice. The speaker will report first data collected with the detector and discuss R&D progress and prospects of the full scale DM-Ice detector.

About the speaker:

Liang Yang （杨亮） was an undergraduate at Yale University, and obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University. After working at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory as a research associate, he joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an assistant professor in 2012. Professor Yang's research interests center on low energy experimental probes for physics beyond the Standard Model. He worked on the magnetic trapping of ultra-cold neutrons to measure neutron lifetime, and the construction of ultra-low background liquid xenon TPC for neutrinoless double beta decay search. Currently, he is the co-analysis coordinator for EXO-200 and co-L2 manager for nEXO readout system. He also participates in the R&D for DM-Ice and neutron electric dipole moment search experiment (nEDM) at SNS.