Special Particle Physics Seminar

SABRE is a dark matter direct detection experiment with a target of ultra-pure NaI(Tl). Our experiment is motivated by the DAMA result; a long-standing and highly statistically significant modulation of the count rate in their NaI(Tl) detector that is consistent with that expected from the dark matter halo. However, a number of other direct detection experiments, using different target materials, exclude the dark matter parameter space implied by DAMA for the simplest WIMP-nucleus interaction models. SABRE hopes to carry out the first model-independent test of the DAMA claim, with sufficient sensitivity to confirm or refute their result. SABRE will also operate identical detectors in the northern and southern hemisphere, to rule out seasonally-modulated backgrounds. The southern detector will be housed at the first deep underground laboratory in the Southern Hemisphere: the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory. This talk will give an overview of the SABRE design and its predicted sensitivity, as well as an update on the proof-of-principle detector which will be operating this summer.