The XENON dark matter research project is an interesting long-running project that strives to detect dark matter. I understand that the basic principle of the project design is that WIMPs are expected to "flash" and "ripple" when they interact with an atom's nucleus, as detailed in this Physics post.
My question is what makes liquid xenon the best medium for this? I understand that xenon is extremely low reactivity and has a really long half-life, but it seems to me you should want a highly reactive medium if you are hoping to find weakly interactive particles. Low reactivity seems like the wrong tool. What am I missing here?
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