1. Simulation and background characterisation of the SABRE South experiment
- Author
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E. Barberio, T. Baroncelli, L. J. Bignell, I. Bolognino, G. Brooks, F. Dastgiri, G. D’Imperio, A. Di Giacinto, A. R. Duffy, M. Froehlich, G. Fu, M. S. M. Gerathy, G. C. Hill, S. Krishnan, G. J. Lane, G. Lawrence, K. T. Leaver, I. Mahmood, A. Mariani, P. McGee, L. J. McKie, P. C. McNamara, M. Mews, W. J. D. Melbourne, G. Milana, L. J. Milligan, J. Mould, F. Nuti, V. Pettinacci, F. Scutti, Z. Slavkovská, N. J. Spinks, O. Stanley, A. E. Stuchbery, G. N. Taylor, C. Tomei, P. Urquijo, C. Vignoli, A. G. Williams, Y. Y. Zhong, and M. J. Zurowski
- Subjects
Astrophysics ,QB460-466 ,Nuclear and particle physics. Atomic energy. Radioactivity ,QC770-798 - Abstract
Abstract SABRE (Sodium iodide with Active Background REjection) is a direct detection dark matter experiment based on arrays of radio-pure NaI(Tl) crystals. The experiment aims at achieving an ultra-low background rate and its primary goal is to confirm or refute the results from the DAMA/LIBRA experiment. The SABRE Proof-of-Principle phase was carried out in 2020–2021 at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS), in Italy. The next phase consists of two full-scale experiments: SABRE South at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory, in Australia, and SABRE North at LNGS. This paper focuses on SABRE South and presents a detailed simulation of the detector, which is used to characterise the background for dark matter searches including DAMA/LIBRA-like modulation. We estimate an overall background of 0.72 cpd/kg/ $$\hbox {keV}_{\hbox {{ee}}}$$ keV ee in the energy range 1–6 $$\hbox {keV}_{\hbox {{ee}}}$$ keV ee primarily due to radioactive contamination in the crystals. Given this level of background and considering that the SABRE South has a target mass of 50 kg, we expect to exclude (confirm) DAMA/LIBRA modulation at $$4~(5)\sigma $$ 4 ( 5 ) σ within 2.5 years of data taking.
- Published
- 2023
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