MoEDAL Search in the CMS Beam Pipe for Magnetic Monopoles Produced via the Schwinger Effect

B Acharya; J Alexandre; S C Behera; P Benes; B Bergmann; S Bertolucci; A Bevan; R Brancaccio; H Branzas; P Burian; M Campbell; S Cecchini; Y M Cho; M de Montigny; A De Roeck; J R Ellis; M Fairbairn; D Felea; M Frank; O Gould; J Hays; A M Hirt; D L-J Ho; P Q Hung; J Janecek; M Kalliokoski; D H Lacarrère; C Leroy; G Levi; A Margiotta; R Maselek; A Maulik; N Mauri; N E Mavromatos; L Millward; V A Mitsou; E Musumeci; I Ostrovskiy; P-P Ouimet; J Papavassiliou; L Patrizii; G E Păvălaş; J L Pinfold; L A Popa; V Popa; M Pozzato; S Pospisil; A Rajantie; R Ruiz de Austri; Z Sahnoun; M Sakellariadou; K Sakurai; S Sarkar; G Semenoff; A Shaa; G Sirri; K Sliwa; R Soluk; M Spurio; M Staelens; M Suk; M Tenti; V Togo; J A Tuszyński; A Upreti; V Vento; O Vives

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.071803

MoEDAL Search in the CMS Beam Pipe for Magnetic Monopoles Produced via the Schwinger Effect

Phys Rev Lett. 2024 Aug 16;133(7):071803. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.071803.

Authors

B Acharya¹, J Alexandre¹, S C Behera², P Benes³, B Bergmann³, S Bertolucci⁴, A Bevan⁵, R Brancaccio⁶, H Branzas⁷, P Burian³, M Campbell⁸, S Cecchini⁴, Y M Cho⁹, M de Montigny¹⁰, A De Roeck⁸, J R Ellis^{1

11}, M Fairbairn¹, D Felea⁷, M Frank¹², O Gould¹³, J Hays⁵, A M Hirt¹⁴, D L-J Ho¹⁵, P Q Hung¹⁶, J Janecek³, M Kalliokoski¹⁷, D H Lacarrère⁸, C Leroy¹⁸, G Levi⁶, A Margiotta⁶, R Maselek¹⁹, A Maulik^{4

10}, N Mauri⁶, N E Mavromatos¹, L Millward⁵, V A Mitsou²⁰, E Musumeci²⁰, I Ostrovskiy², P-P Ouimet²¹, J Papavassiliou²⁰, L Patrizii⁴, G E Păvălaş⁷, J L Pinfold¹⁰, L A Popa⁷, V Popa⁷, M Pozzato⁴, S Pospisil³, A Rajantie¹⁵, R Ruiz de Austri²⁰, Z Sahnoun⁶, M Sakellariadou¹, K Sakurai¹⁹, S Sarkar¹, G Semenoff²², A Shaa¹⁰, G Sirri⁴, K Sliwa²³, R Soluk¹⁰, M Spurio⁶, M Staelens²⁰, M Suk³, M Tenti⁴, V Togo⁴, J A Tuszyński¹⁰, A Upreti², V Vento²⁰, O Vives²⁰

Affiliations

¹ Theoretical Particle Physics & Cosmology Group, Physics Department, King's College, London, United Kingdom.
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, <a href="https://ror.org/03xrrjk67">University of Alabama</a>, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA.
³ IEAP, Czech Technical University, Prague, Czech Republic.
⁴ INFN, Section of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
⁵ School of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary University, London, United Kingdom.
⁶ INFN, Section of Bologna & Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
⁷ Institute of Space Science, Bucharest, Magurele, Romania.
⁸ Experimental Physics Department, <a href="https://ror.org/01ggx4157">CERN</a>, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁹ Center for Quantum Spacetime, Sogang University, Seoul, Korea.
¹⁰ Physics Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
¹¹ Theoretical Physics Department, <a href="https://ror.org/01ggx4157">CERN</a>, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹² Department of Physics, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
¹³ University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
¹⁴ Department of Earth Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland.
¹⁵ Department of Physics, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom.
¹⁶ Department of Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
¹⁷ Helsinki Institute of Physics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
¹⁸ Departement de Physique, Universite de Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
¹⁹ Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
²⁰ IFIC, Universitat de Valencia, CSIC, Valencia, Spain.
²¹ Physics Department, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
²² Department of Physics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
²³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA.

PMID: 39213579
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.071803

Abstract

We report on a search for magnetic monopoles (MMs) produced in ultraperipheral Pb-Pb collisions during Run 1 of the LHC. The beam pipe surrounding the interaction region of the CMS experiment was exposed to 184.07 μb^{-1} of Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV center-of-mass energy per collision in December 2011, before being removed in 2013. It was scanned by the MoEDAL experiment using a SQUID magnetometer to search for trapped MMs. No MM signal was observed. The two distinctive features of this search are the use of a trapping volume very close to the collision point and ultrahigh magnetic fields generated during the heavy-ion run that could produce MMs via the Schwinger effect. These two advantages allowed setting the first reliable, world-leading mass limits on MMs with high magnetic charge. In particular, the established limits are the strongest available in the range between 2 and 45 Dirac units, excluding MMs with masses of up to 80 GeV at a 95% confidence level.