Search for Highly-Ionizing Particles in pp Collisions During LHC Run-2 Using the Full MoEDAL Detector

TL;DR

This paper reports on a comprehensive search for highly-ionizing particles like magnetic monopoles and HECOs using the full MoEDAL detector at LHC, setting the most stringent charge and mass limits to date.

Contribution

First use of the full MoEDAL detector to search for magnetic monopoles and HECOs in 13 TeV proton-proton collisions, establishing new world-leading limits.

Findings

Mass limits on magnetic monopoles up to 10 Dirac charges.

Charge limits on HECOs from 5e to 350e.

Most stringent charge limits achieved worldwide.

Abstract

This search for Magnetic Monopoles (MMs) and High Electric Charge Objects (HECOs) with spins 0, 1/2 and 1, uses for the first time the full MoEDAL detector, exposed to 6.6 fb^-1 proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV. The results are interpreted in terms of Drell-Yan and photon-fusion pair production. Mass limits on direct production of MMs of up to 10 Dirac magnetic charges and HECOs with electric charge in the range 5e to 350e were achieved. The charge limits placed on MM and HECO production are currently the strongest in the world. MoEDAL is the only LHC experiment capable of being directly calibrated for highly-ionizing particles using heavy ions and with a detector system dedicated to definitively measuring magnetic charge.