Buffalo, NY—Dr. Michael Wood, professor of physics at Canisius University, has co-authored a newly published paper outlining plans for an innovative experimental facility designed to advance the study of fundamental particles, including the search for dark matter.
The paper, “A Beamdump Facility at Jefferson Lab,” published in the European Physical Journal A, presents a proposal for the Beamdump Facility, a new experimental area at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab), a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory located in Newport News, Virginia.
JLab is internationally recognized for its research into the structure of matter at the subatomic level. Using high-energy electron beams, scientists at the laboratory probe the atomic nucleus to better understand the fundamental forces and particles that make up the universe.
The proposed Beamdump Facility would expand JLab’s capabilities by generating secondary beams of particles—including muons, neutrinos, and potential dark matter candidates—produced when the primary electron beam interacts with a target. These secondary beams would enable a new class of experiments not currently possible at the facility.
Dr. Wood is a member of the Beamdump eXperiment (BDX) collaboration, an international team of researchers proposing to use the new facility to search for light-mass dark matter, one of the most significant unsolved mysteries in modern physics.
The publication represents a significant step toward realizing the Beamdump Facility and highlights the collaborative efforts of physicists worldwide to push the boundaries of current scientific knowledge.
The article is open access and available online at: https://epja.epj.org/articles/epja/abs/2025/12/10050_2025_Article_1748/10050_2025_Article_1748.html
