Underground Operations at SURF: Day-to-Day Life and Troubleshooting in the LUX-ZEPLIN Dark Matter

The Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), located approximately one mile beneath the surface, is the deepest underground research facility in the United States. SURF hosts a wide range of multidisciplinary experiments, including the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) detector, the world's most sensitive dark matter experiment. During my 10-week research experience at SURF, I developed a diverse set of technical and operational skills through hands-on involvement in hardware maintenance, troubleshooting, and daily experimental procedures. This experience provided me with practical insight into the challenges of underground research and the precision required for the successful operation of large-scale dark matter detection systems.