26th Australian Institute of Physics Congress and the Australian and New Zealand Conference on Optics and Photonics

Session

AIP NUPP: Dark Matter 1

NUPP

8 Dec 2026, 16:30

Belinda Hutchinson Building (The University of Sydney )

Conveners

AIP NUPP: Dark Matter 1

• Ben McAllister (Swinburne University of Technology)

579. CYGNUS-Oz: Directional Detection for Rare Event Particle Physics

Dr Lindsey Bignell (Department of Nuclear Physics and Accelerator Applications, The Australian National University)

08/12/2026, 16:30

AIP | Nuclear and Particle Physics (NUPP)

Invited talk

The study of rare particle interactions is fertile ground in the search for beyond-Standard-Model physics. Experimental searches of this nature are extremely challenging, typically operating for years to measure a very small sample of signal events. It is therefore imperative to employ detection technologies that extract as much information as possible, to maximise the scientific value of the...

560. SABRE South: Detector assembly, commissioning at SUPL, and muon flux measurements

Antoine Cools (University of Melbourne)

08/12/2026, 17:00

AIP | Nuclear and Particle Physics (NUPP)

Contributed Oral

The SABRE South experiment at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) is preparing to become Australia's first deep-underground dark matter direct-detection experiment, using an array of ultra-pure NaI(Tl) crystals to test the annual modulation signal reported by DAMA/LIBRA. We present the status of detector assembly and commissioning, from the integration of the liquid scintillator...

563. SABRE South: Radiopurity assay and first bare crystal results

Kieran Rule (University of Melbourne)

08/12/2026, 17:15

AIP | Nuclear and Particle Physics (NUPP)

Contributed Oral

The SABRE South experiment at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) is preparing to deploy an array of ultra-pure NaI(Tl) crystals to test the annual modulation signal reported by DAMA/LIBRA. We present first results from bare crystal measurements underground, a critical milestone as production of the final SABRE South crystals is now underway. A >6.5 kg prototype crystal grown...

564. SABRE South: Simulation, software framework, and physics reach

Subrahmanya Saicharan Pemmaraju

08/12/2026, 17:30

AIP | Nuclear and Particle Physics (NUPP)

Contributed Oral

The SABRE South experiment at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) will soon become Australia’s first deep-underground direct-detection dark matter experiment. In preparation for commissioning and data taking, a suite of software tools has been developed to support detector simulation and data analysis.

This work presents the software frameworks underpinning SABRE South’s...

147. Beyond Mean-Field Nuclear Structure for Dark Matter Direct Detection

Navneet Krishnan (Australian National University)

08/12/2026, 17:45

AIP | Nuclear and Particle Physics (NUPP)

Contributed Oral

Weakly-Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) remain one of the leading candidates for dark matter. One aspect of the search for such particles is direct detection, where terrestrial detectors aim to observe or constrain interactions between WIMPs and nuclei. This requires the application of a nuclear structure model in order to effectively predict the potential nuclear responses to WIMP...