Search for magnetic monopoles and stable particles with high electric charges in 8 TeV $pp$ collisions with the ATLAS detector

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for highly ionizing particles, such as magnetic monopoles and stable particles with high electric charges, in 8 TeV proton-proton collisions using the ATLAS detector, setting new upper limits on their production.

Contribution

The study introduces a customized trigger to enhance sensitivity for detecting particles with charges beyond previous limits and provides new upper bounds on their production cross sections.

Findings

No events observed in the signal region.

Set upper limits on production cross sections for magnetic monopoles and high-charge particles.

Presented model-dependent and model-independent limits.

Abstract

A search for highly ionizing particles produced in proton-proton collisions at 8 TeV center-of-mass energy is performed by the ATLAS collaboration at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The dataset used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 7.0 fb$^{-1}$. A customized trigger significantly increases the sensitivity, permitting a search for such particles with charges and energies beyond what was previously accessible. No events were found in the signal region, leading to production cross section upper limits in the mass range 200--2500 GeV for magnetic monopoles with magnetic charge in the range $0.5g_{D}<|g|<2.0g_{D}$, where $g_{D}$ is the Dirac charge, and for stable particles with electric charge in the range $10<|z|<60$. Model-dependent limits are presented in given pair-production scenarios, and model-independent limits are presented in fiducial regions of particle energy and pseudorapidity.