Eur. Phys. J. C (2019) 79: 363
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-6860-y

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

The SABRE project and the SABRE Proof-of-Principle

¹ INFN, Sezione di Milano, 20133, Milan, Italy
² School of Physics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia
³ Chemical Engineering Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
⁴ Department of Nuclear Physics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia
⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133, Milan, Italy
⁶ Physics Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
⁷ INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, 67100, Assergi (L’Aquila), Italy
⁸ INFN, Gran Sasso Science Institute, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
⁹ INFN, Sezione di Roma, 00185, Rome, Italy
¹⁰ ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), Sydney, Australia
¹¹ Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia
¹² High Energy Physics, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2BZ, UK
¹³ Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Boulevard, Richland, WA, 99352, USA
¹⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185, Rome, Italy
¹⁵ The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia
¹⁶ Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization, Lucas Heights, NSW, 2234, Australia
¹⁷ Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica Università di Roma Tre and INFN Sezione di Roma Tre, 00146, Rome, Italy

^* e-mail: giulia.dimperio@roma1.infn.it

Received: 15 November 2018
Accepted: 5 April 2019
Published online: 26 April 2019

Abstract

SABRE aims to directly measure the annual modulation of the dark matter interaction rate with NaI(Tl) crystals. A modulation compatible with the standard hypothesis, in which our Galaxy is immersed in a dark matter halo, has been measured by the DAMA experiment in the same target material. Other direct detection experiments, using different target materials, seem to exclude the interpretation of such modulation in the simplest scenario of WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering. The SABRE experiment aims to carry out an independent search with sufficient sensitivity to confirm or refute the DAMA claim. The goal of the SABRE experiment is to achieve the lowest background rate for a NaI(Tl) experiment (order of 0.1 cpd/kg/keV_ee in the energy region of interest for dark matter). This challenging goal could be achievable by operating high-purity crystals inside a liquid scintillator veto for active background rejection. In addition, twin detectors will be located in the northern and southern hemispheres to identify possible contributions to the modulation from seasonal or site-related effects. The SABRE project includes an initial Proof-of-Principle phase at LNGS (Italy), to assess the radio-purity of the crystals and the efficiency of the liquid scintillator veto. This paper describes the general concept of SABRE and the expected sensitivity to WIMP annual modulation.