Search for Magnetic Monopoles with the NOvA Far Detector 930 views

The magnetic monopole is a hypothetical particle, which is an important field con- figuration in many Grand Unified Theories, and whose mass may vary from 10E4 to 10E18 GeV. The quantization of magnetic charge derived by Dirac in 1931 suggests the heavy ionization nature of magnetic monopoles. The NOνA collaboration is using the NOνA far detector – the largest scintillator detector in the world – to search for signals of relic monopoles that might have been produced in the early universe. To achieve this, we have simulated the propagation of non-relativistic monopoles with a uniform distribution of velocity within the range 10E−4<β< 0.2 , and the corresponding detector response. To record potential monopole-like events, we have developed a data-driven trigger system with two monopole triggers (the fast monopole trigger and the slow monopole trigger). This analysis focuses on the data recorded by the fast monopole trigger, which is sensitive to monopoles with velocity β<10E−3. We have performed a blind analysis on a total live time of 1,628.2 hours of data recorded by the fast monopole trigger. We present the updated flux limits with 90% CL (confidence level) as a function of monopole mass and velocity.

PHD (Doctor of Philosophy)

Magnetic monopole; Trigger; NOvA

English

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2015-11-12