UMass Amherst Physicist Available to Discuss Breaking News in the Quest for Dark Matter, Following Webinar

*** MEDIA ADVISORY ***

DATE:            Thursday, July 7

TIME:            Noon ET

WHAT:          UMass physicist, Scott Hertel, available to discuss the LZ Dark Matter Experiment

WHERE:       The webinar, hosted by the Dark Matter Experiment’s research team,
                      will be streamed via Zoom (connection details below)

WHO:            Scott Hertel (617-763-4123, scottahertel@gmail.com) is available immediately
                      after the webinar to discuss the search for dark matter

AMHERST, Mass. – UMass physicist Scott Hertel is a member of the LZ Dark Matter Experiment team and is available for comment.

No one has ever seen dark matter. It does not emit, absorb or scatter light, and yet it is estimated that about 85 percent of the total mass of the universe come from the substance. “There are lots of problems in astrophysics which are solved by dark matter,” says Scott Hertel, a professor of physics at UMass and whose team designed some of the techniques and equipment to calibrate the LZ detector. “There is more dark matter in the universe than normal matter. It tells us how galaxies form, how stars orbit and how things worked in the early universe, which was hot and dense. Dark matter is the main source of the gravity we see in astrophysics. We need dark matter. But no one has seen a dark matter particle. We have no idea what the particle is.”

That might soon change, thanks to the LZ experiment, which will release results from its first 60 “live days” of testing, in a webinar on Thursday, July 7, at noon, ET.

The webinar, which is free and open to the public, will be livestreamed on Zoom. Connection details are below, and Hertel will be available for comment immediately following the event.

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.

When: Jul 7, 2022 12:00 Noon, Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada)

Topic: LZ Webinar

Click the link below to join the webinar:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87820376948?pwd=eksvbC9Lc0NCT0JYZHNwTTdnditjQT09

Passcode: 085124

Or One tap mobile :

    US: +13462487799,,87820376948#  or +16699006833,,87820376948#

Or Telephone:

    Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):

US: +1 346 248 7799  or +1 669 900 6833  or +1 253 215 8782  or +1 312 626 6799  or +1 929 205 6099  or +1 301 715 8592

Webinar ID: 878 2037 6948

    International numbers available: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kcsCiI83H3