The SABRE South Dark Matter Search and its Veto Detector

by Lachlan Milligan (University of Birmingham)

Wednesday 8 Oct 2025, 13:30 → 14:30 Europe/London

Small Lecture Theatre (Poynting)

SABRE is an international collaboration that will operate similar particle detectors in the Northern (SABRE North) and Southern Hemispheres (SABRE South), with the aim of testing the anomalous DAMA/LIBRA signal — an annually modulating event rate claimed to be consistent with dark matter. This innovative approach distinguishes possible dark matter signals from seasonal backgrounds, a strategy only possible with a southern hemisphere experiment. SABRE South is located at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL), in regional Victoria, Australia. SUPL is a newly built facility located 1024 m underground (∼2900 m water equivalent) within the Stawell Gold Mine and its construction was completed in 2023. The SABRE South detector employs ultra-high purity NaI(Tl) crystals immersed in a Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) based liquid scintillator veto, alongside a plastic scintillator muon veto placed on top of the detector shielding. In this seminar I will introduce and describe the SABRE South detector, its anticipated performance, and potential physics reach. I will also discuss the liquid scintillator veto and the work undertaken to exploit it to its fullest extent. Finally, I will provide some recent updates on the progress of the experiment.