Lindsey Bignell

Dr. Lindsey Bignell is a Researcher in the Department of Nuclear Physics & Accelerator Applications at The Australian National University (ANU). Her work focuses on experimental particle physics, particularly in dark matter detection and neutrino physics. She leads and contributes to major collaborations such as the SABRE South experiment at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory and the CYGνS solar neutrino project. Her research emphasizes detector development, including scintillator technologies and time projection chambers, to improve sensitivity and background rejection for rare particle interactions. Bignell has pioneered studies on cosmogenic activation of materials and pulse shape discrimination in NaI detectors. She also investigates nuclear structure phenomena, such as superdeformed bands in tin isotopes. Her projects, including the CLARION2-TRINITY array and PROSPECT reactor neutrino experiments, highlight her expertise in multi-institutional collaborations and advanced instrumentation.

Research Interests: Dark Matter Detection, Neutrino Physics, Scintillation Detectors, Nuclear Astrophysics, Underground Physics Facilities, and Experimental Nuclear Instrumentation. Her work integrates detector engineering, computational modeling, and fundamental physics to explore phenomena like solar neutrinos and weakly interacting particles.

Key Projects:

• SABRE South Experiment: A ton-scale sodium-iodide detector searching for dark matter via directional recoil analysis.
• CYGνS: A gas-time projection chamber for solar neutrino directional detection.
• PROSPECT: A reactor antineutrino experiment studying short-baseline oscillations and novel detector concepts.

Technical Contributions: Development of liquid scintillator vetoes, photomultiplier calibration protocols, and background characterization techniques. Her innovations in pulse shape discrimination and cosmogenic activation mitigation enhance detector performance in low-signal environments.

Future Work: Expansion of SABRE South to full-scale operation, exploration of feebly interacting bosons via proton-induced reactions, and advancing THz emission studies in semiconductor materials.