Dr Adam Softley-Brown
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Research Fellow in Particle Physics
Full contact details
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
F34
Hicks Building
Hounsfield Road
Sheffield
S3 7RH
- Profile
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I am an experimental particle astrophysicist, trying to solve some of the big riddles in fundamental physics. My research is based on the direct search for dark matter by using liquid-xenon based detectors.
I am a member of the LZ collaboration, which operates an experiment in the Sanford Underground Research Facility (South Dakota, USA). The LZ experiment is based around a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber, or TPC, which records tiny flashes of scintillation light and small numbers of ionised electrons produced when particles interact within it. This gives us information about the position, energy, and type of the interaction which took place.
By operating the detector deep underground, carefully selecting the purest of materials to build it from, and employing veto detectors, we minimise natural background sources of particle interactions. This means that when we do see the signal we are looking for, we can be sure it is from dark matter.
The global XLZD collaboration, of which I am also a member, is working towards an even more sensitive experiment. This will be around ten times bigger than LZ, and have a significantly lower background, and therefore will be able to probe more weakly interacting dark matter.
I am involved in various aspects of the preparations and design of XLZD, including being part of the team developing the central detector. I am also part of an effort to attract the experiment to the UK, where it would be hosted in the Boulby Underground Laboratory.
XLZD will be sensitive enough to detect the dark matter particles predicted by many leading theories and to look for neutrinoless double-beta decay. It will also be sensitive to interactions of various types of neutrino coming from the Sun, which can give us insights into solar physics as well as into the properties of neutrinos.
- Publications
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Show: Featured publications All publications
Featured publications
Journal articles
- . Journal of Instrumentation, 19(09).
- . Journal of Instrumentation, 19(05), P05018-P05018.
- . Physical Review Letters, 131(4).
- . Journal of Instrumentation, 16(08).
- . Physical Review D, 103(6).
- . Nature, 568(7753), 532-535.
- . Physical Review Letters, 121(11).
- . European Physical Journal C, 83(1), 9.
Preprints
- First Indication of Solar $^8$B Neutrinos via Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering with XENONnT.
All publications
Journal articles
- . The European Physical Journal C, 85.
- . Physical Review X, 15.
- . The European Physical Journal C, 85(6).
- . Physical Review D, 111(10).
- . Physical Review Letters, 134(16).
- . Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, 52(4).
- . Physical Review D, 111(6).
- . Physical Review Letters, 134(11).
- . Physical Review Letters, 133.
- . Journal of Instrumentation, 19(09).
- . The European Physical Journal C, 84.
- . Physical Review D, 110.
- . Physical Review D, 109.
- . Journal of Instrumentation, 19(05), P05018-P05018.
- . The European Physical Journal C, 84.
- . The European Physical Journal C, 84.
- . Physical Review D, 108(7).
- . Journal of Instrumentation, 18(07).
- . Physical Review Letters, 131(4).
- . Physical Review D, 108(1).
- . Physical Review Letters, 130(26).
- . Journal of Instrumentation, 18(02).
- . Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, 50(1).
- . The European Physical Journal C, 82(11).
- . Physical Review Letters, 129(16).
- . Physical Review C, 106(2).
- . Journal of Instrumentation, 17(07).
- . The European Physical Journal C, 82(7).
- . Physical Review D, 106(2).
- . Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, 2022(5).
- . Journal of Instrumentation, 16(08).
- . European Physical Journal C, 81(4), 337.
- . Physical Review D, 103(6).
- . Physical Review Letters, 126(9), 091301.
- . The European Physical Journal C, 80(12).
- . Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2020(11).
- . Physical Review D, 102(7).
- . European Physical Journal C, 80(9), 808.
- . The European Physical Journal C, 80(8).
- . Astroparticle Physics, 119.
- . Physical Review Letters, 123(25).
- . Physical Review Letters, 123(24).
- . Physical Review D, 100(5).
- . Journal of Instrumentation, 14(07).
- . Physical Review D, 99(11).
- . Nature, 568(7753), 532-535.
- . Physical Review Letters, 122(14).
- . Physical Review Letters, 122(7).
- . Physical Review Letters, 121(11).
- . Astroparticle Physics, 103, 62-66.
- . Journal of Instrumentation, 13(07).
- . Physical Review D, 96(12).
- . Physical Review Letters, 119(18).
- . European Physical Journal C, 83(11), 996.
- . European Physical Journal C, 83(6), 542.
- . European Physical Journal C, 83(1), 9.
Preprints
- Spectral Measurement of the $^{214}$Bi beta-decay to the $^{214}$Po Ground State with XENONnT.
- Challenging Spontaneous Quantum Collapse with XENONnT.
- WIMP Dark Matter Search using a 3.1 tonne $times$ year Exposure of the XENONnT Experiment.
- Radon Removal in XENONnT down to the Solar Neutrino Level.
- Low-Energy Nuclear Recoil Calibration of XENONnT with a $^{88}$YBe Photoneutron Source.
- The neutron veto of the XENONnT experiment: Results with demineralized water.
- Search for Light Dark Matter in Low-Energy Ionization Signals from XENONnT.
- , arXiv.
- , arXiv.
- Model-independent searches of new physics in DARWIN with a semi-supervised deep learning pipeline.
- First Search for Light Dark Matter in the Neutrino Fog with XENONnT.
- XENONnT Analysis: Signal Reconstruction, Calibration and Event Selection.
- First Indication of Solar $^8$B Neutrinos via Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering with XENONnT.
- XENONnT WIMP Search: Signal & Background Modeling and Statistical Inference.
- , arXiv.
- Offline tagging of radon-induced backgrounds in XENON1T and applicability to other liquid xenon detectors.
- The XENONnT Dark Matter Experiment.
- , arXiv.
- , arXiv.
- Cosmogenic background simulations for the DARWIN observatory at different underground locations.
- Search for events in XENON1T associated with Gravitational Waves.
- Searching for Heavy Dark Matter near the Planck Mass with XENON1T.
- Detector signal characterization with a Bayesian network in XENONnT.
- First Dark Matter Search with Nuclear Recoils from the XENONnT Experiment.
- The Triggerless Data Acquisition System of the XENONnT Experiment.
- Low-energy Calibration of XENON1T with an Internal $^{37}$Ar Source.
- Effective field theory and inelastic dark matter results from XENON1T.
- An approximate likelihood for nuclear recoil searches with XENON1T data.
- , arXiv.
- , arXiv.
- Search for New Physics in Electronic Recoil Data from XENONnT.
- Double-Weak Decays of $^{124}$Xe and $^{136}$Xe in the XENON1T and XENONnT Experiments.
- GPU-based optical simulation of the DARWIN detector.
- , arXiv.
- Emission of Single and Few Electrons in XENON1T and Limits on Light Dark Matter.
- Application and modeling of an online distillation method to reduce krypton and argon in XENON1T.
- Material radiopurity control in the XENONnT experiment.
- , arXiv.
- Search for Coherent Elastic Scattering of Solar $^8$B Neutrinos in the XENON1T Dark Matter Experiment.
- Search for inelastic scattering of WIMP dark matter in XENON1T.
- $^{222}$Rn emanation measurements for the XENON1T experiment.
- Projected WIMP Sensitivity of the XENONnT Dark Matter Experiment.
- Excess Electronic Recoil ¾Ã²Ý¸£Àû in XENON1T.
- Solar Neutrino Detection Sensitivity in DARWIN via Electron Scattering.
- Sensitivity of the DARWIN observatory to the neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{136}$Xe.
- Energy resolution and linearity of XENON1T in the MeV energy range.
- , arXiv.
- Search for Light Dark Matter Interactions Enhanced by the Migdal effect or Bremsstrahlung in XENON1T.
- Light Dark Matter Search with Ionization Signals in XENON1T.
- XENON1T Dark Matter Data Analysis: Signal Reconstruction, Calibration and Event Selection.
- The XENON1T Data Acquisition System.
- First observation of two-neutrino double electron capture in $^{124}$Xe with XENON1T.
- XENON1T Dark Matter Data Analysis: Signal & Background Models, and Statistical Inference.
- Constraining the Spin-Dependent WIMP-Nucleon Cross Sections with XENON1T.
- First results on the scalar WIMP-pion coupling, using the XENON1T experiment.
- , arXiv.
- Dark Matter Search Results from a One Tonne$times$Year Exposure of XENON1T.
- , arXiv.
- Search for Bosonic Super-WIMP Interactions with the XENON100 Experiment.
- First Dark Matter Search Results from the XENON1T Experiment.
- Research group