Welcome to SABRE South
SABRE South is a dark matter direct-detection experiment. Its goal is to search for a hypothesised type of particle which may constitute dark matter, the mysterious and elusive material that makes up about 23% of the mass-energy of the universe- around five times as much as the matter that we can see.
It will search for WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles), one type of candidate dark matter (DM) particle.
The experiment will be located deep underground in the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL), situated in a cavern in the Stawell Gold Mine in Victoria, Australia. Installation of equipment began in October 2023.
Member institutions
Australian National University
Swinburne University of Technology
Public Wiki
All publicly-accessible information may be found here.
Links
SABRE experiment : (SABRE North and the full SABRE collaboration)
Centre for Dark Matter Particle Physics : Australia’s national Centre for investigating the nature of dark matter
Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory : the host location for SABRE South
In the media
January 21st, 2024 : Mike Mews was interviewed on 3RRR radio in Melbourne, in the “Einstein A Go-Go” programme. You may listen to the interview here, and it starts at 27’10” in.
April 2023 : ABC “Catalyst” episode, “The Dark Side of the Universe”, featuring SABRE South and SUPL. Available for viewing on ABC iView.
January 24th, 2023 : Interview with Irene Bolognino in Cosmos.
June 2nd, 2022 : Popular science and engineering video channel Veritasium has produced a video on the search for dark matter, featuring SABRE South and SUPL. The video excellently covers material discussed in the “Background” section of this website, as well as the experiment and lab themselves.
News
April 2024 : The ANU has developed a virtual 3D tour of SUPL and Wantirna. It may be explored here.
February 2024 : Final veto assembly tests are taking place within the SABRE South vessel at Swinburne’s Wantirna campus. These tests cover a multitude of issues, including installing the Lumirror sheeting on the vessel’s interior walls, and veto PMT mounting and cabling. The results will inform the processes used when installing SABRE South in SUPL.
January 2024 : The main muon system has been installed in SUPL. This is quite a milestone, as it represents the first components of the SABRE South system itself to be installed in the lab. The system will eventually be placed above the veto vessel, but for now is arranged in telescope configuration, which allows for studies of the angular distribution of muons entering the lab.
October 2023 : The small muon system has been installed in SUPL. This represents the first placement of our equipment in the lab, and is a notable milestone in progress. Some environmental monitoring equipment (radon levels, temperature, pressure) also has been installed.
Events
Wednesday, August 2nd, 2023 : Irene Bolognino (U. Adelaide) gave a public lecture on dark matter and SABRE, for the Astronomical Society of South Australia (in-person and on YouTube). Please see here to view a recording of the lecture.
Friday, August 19th, 2022 : Official opening of SUPL.