SABRE South at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory

Abstract

The SABRE (Sodium-iodide with Active Background REjection) experiments aim to detect an annual rate modulation from dark matter interactions in ultra-high purity NaI(Tl) crystals. The SABRE South experiment is located at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL), Australia, the first deep underground laboratory in the southern hemisphere, due to be completed in late 2021. SABRE South is designed to disentangle seasonal or site-related effects from the dark matter-like modulated signal first observed by DAMA/LIBRA in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a partner to the SABRE North effort at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS). SABRE South is instrumented with ultra-high purity NaI(Tl) crystals immersed in a linear alkylbenzene based liquid scintillator veto, further surrounded by passive steel and polyethylene shielding and a plastic scintillator muon veto. The SABRE South experiment is under construction, and will be commissioned in early 2022.In this article we present the final design of SABRE South, the status of its construction, and its expected sensitivity to a DAMA/LIBRA like modulation. We will also present a brief report on the status of SUPL.