Speaker
Description
For almost 20 years, the DAMA experiment has observed annual modulations
in the signal from heavily-shielded, ultra-pure NaI scintillator
crystals housed in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. This
modulation is consistent with expectations for the motion of the earth
through a galactic dark matter halo, but is in conflict with results
from other dark matter direct detection experiments. Recent efforts with
NaI-based detectors that aim to test the DAMA result will be reviewed,
with a focus on the new SABRE experiment under construction that will be
the first based in both the North and South Hemispheres and hence able
to separate a potential dark-matter-induced modulation signal from any
seasonal-induced background. The SABRE South experiment will be housed
in the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) in Australia; this
will be the first deep-underground, low-background laboratory in the
Southern Hemisphere and its progress will also be be presented.