极深地下探秘宇宙的“熊猫X”实验

Exploring the universe with the deep underground “PandaX”

近百年的天文学观测表明宇宙中有大量看不见的"暗物质"存在,但是我们对暗物质的本质却所知甚少。宇宙中也充斥着一种很像暗物质的"幽灵粒子"——中微子,它们的身上也有着众多未解之谜。对暗物质和中微子研究的突破很可能带来下一次物理学的革命。国际上最深的、位于四川凉山州的中国锦屏地下实验室为这样的实验研究提供了得天独厚的场所。过去的20年,液氙探测技术的发展使之成为了探测暗物质、研究中微子性质的核心手段之一。文章主要介绍了暗物质与中微子的未解之谜、液氙探测技术的发展、国内外一些液氙实验的发展态势以及我国液氙探测暗物质"熊猫X"实验的现状和未来。

Astronomical observations over the past hundred years show that there is a large amount of invisible"dark matter"in the universe, but we know little about its essence. The universe is also full of neutrinos,"ghost particles"much like dark matter, and they also contain many unsolved mysteries. Breakthroughs in the study of dark matter and neutrinos are likely to bring the next revolution in physics. The China Jinping Underground Laboratory, the deepest lab in the world,is located in Liangshan prefecture, Sichuan province, and provides a unique place for such experimental research. In the past twenty years, the development of liquid xenon detection technology has made it one of the core means to detect dark matter and study the properties of neutrinos. This paper introduces the unsolved mystery of dark matter and neutrinos, and describes the development of liquid xenon detection technology, related experiments at home and abroad, the current status and the future of"Panda X", a liquid xenon observatory in China.