Research Interests

Tyana Stiegler’s primary interest is in rare event detection at the frontiers of new physics. She enjoys the challenge of designing detectors capable of extracting a tiny signal buried in a huge background. As a graduate student, she worked on the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter experiment and low energy nuclear recoil measurements using NaI(Tl) crystals. After graduating, she worked on the NEXT-NEW detector and with the LUX-LZ dark matter experiment.

Stiegler began working on the development of the next Enriched Xenon Observatory (nEXO) detector after joining LLNL in June 2017. Her primary focus is the design and construction of the Large Xenon Test Stand, a liquid xenon time projection chamber (TPC) that will assist with high voltage studies and the development of nEXO detector components. She also works with the simulations group to develop accurate models for the nEXO signal and backgrounds. She is developing the analysis to study radon decay related backgrounds, one of the highest backgrounds for this type of search. The reduction of these types of backgrounds will increase the discovery potential and overall scientific reach of the experiment. The ultimate goal for the nEXO experiment is to observe the neutrinoless double beta decay—direct evidence of physics beyond the standard model.

Ph.D., Experimental Physics, Texas A&M University, 2013

M.S., Physics, University of California, Davis, 2006

B.S., Physics, Sonoma State University, 2003

1. D.S. Akerib, et al. [LUX Collaboration] Identification of Radiopure Titanium for the LZ Dark Matter Experiment and Future Rare Event Searches, arXiv: 1702.02646 [physics.ins-det] (2017).
2. J. Martín-Albo, et al. [NEXT Collaboration] Sensitivity of NEXT-100 to neutrinoless double beta decay, arXiv: 1511.09246 [physics.ins-det] (2016).
3. D.S. Akerib, et al. [LUX Collaboration] First results from the LUX dark matter experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, Physical Review Letters 112, 091303, arXiv: 1310.8214 [astro-ph.CO] (2014).
4. D.S. Akerib, et al. [LUX Collaboration] The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) Experiment, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 704, 111, arXiv: 1211.3788 [physics.ins-det] (2013)
5. D.S. Akerib, et al. [LUX Collaboration] Technical Results from the Surface Run of the LUX Dark Matter Experiment, arXiv: 1210.4569 [astro-ph.IM] (2012).
6. D.C. Malling, et al. [LUX Collaboration] After LUX: The LZ Program, arXiv: 1110.0103 [astro-ph.IM] (2011).