https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-023-11817-z
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Simulation and background characterisation of the SABRE South experiment
SABRE South Collaboration
1
School of Physics, The University of Melbourne, 3010, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
2
Department of Nuclear Physics and Accelerator Applications, The Australian National University, 2601, Canberra, ACT, Australia
3
Department of Physics, The University of Adelaide, 5005, Adelaide, SA, Australia
4
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, 3122, Hawthorn, VIC, Australia
5
School of Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, 3122, Hawthorn, VIC, Australia
6
ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics, Melbourne, Australia
7
INFN-Sezione di Roma, 00185, Rome, Italy
8
INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi (L’Aquila), 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
Received:
2
August
2022
Accepted:
10
July
2023
Published online:
28
September
2023
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/
in the energy range 1–6 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 
within 2.5 years of data taking.
© The Author(s) 2023
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Funded by SCOAP3. SCOAP3 supports the goals of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development.
