Astronomical and cosmological measurements constitute a strong evidence for the existence of dark matter. Commonly, it is assumed that this new form of non-luminous matter is made out of elementary particles. A measurement of WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) scattering off target nuclei would provide very valuable information on the dark-matter particle mass and its interaction probability with matter. Among the direct dark-matter search detectors, the liquid xenon time-projection chambers (TPCs) have shown best sensitivities for direct detection of WIMP masses above few GeV/c2.
Recently the XENON1T detector has started operation at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory in Italy. Its goal is to measure the properties of dark matter or improve the sensitivity of its precursor XENON100 by two orders of magnitude. XENON1T is a liquid xenon TPC with a total mass of ~3.2 tons. To achieve its sensitivity goal, all background contributions have been reduced significantly compared to previous existing experiments. After an introduction, this talk will present the XENON1T detector and the results from the first science run.
Physics is often considered to be objective – not affected by the gender, or of the people involved. However, looking into physics class-rooms, labs, and history, physics is extremely affected by sex or gender – almost always dominated by men. Since the traditional underrepresentation of female researchers exists in essentially all STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields the European Commission defined gender equality as one of the priorities of Horizon 2020 in the European Research Area. Under the lead of DESY the European GENERA consortium of physics related institutes won a grant to support the participating institutes in their efforts to improve on gender equality. In the presentation, details will be provided on the GENERA project, its goals, achievements and future with focus on DESY.

Slides (1.3 MB)

Physics and Gender? The GENERA Project at DESY