XLZD@Boulby - Xenon Futures R&D Phase 3

The XLZD consortium is developing a next-generation rare event observatory based on the leading liquid xenon technology - the definitive underground experiment for electroweak-scale particle dark matter, offering also exciting opportunities in neutrino physics. Our vision is to host the international experiment in the UK, enabling a transformative expansion of the UK's science capability. This limited but urgent project adds a design study element to the ongoing Xenon Futures R&D programme to better position the UK to host the experiment at Boulby.
A significant amount of preparation is needed to demonstrate that major components of such an experiment can be manufactured underground, and that the UK team has the necessary technical expertise to host. This one-year activity will deliver a simple piece of large-diameter hardware engineered and manufactured to meet the required performance underground, working with industry partners; and pre-conceptual design studies of the configuration of the main detector subsystems, including the interactions between them, to help define the UK scope in a future project.