Improved Experimental Limits on the Production of Magnetic Monopoles

TL;DR

This paper reports new experimental limits on the production of low-mass magnetic monopoles at Fermilab, significantly improving previous bounds by analyzing trapped monopoles in matter near the DØ collision region.

Contribution

It provides the first cross section limits for monopoles with various magnetic charges using a Drell-Yan production model at Fermilab.

Findings

Cross section limits of a few hundred femtobarns for monopoles with charges 1, 2, 3, and 6 times the Dirac charge.

Mass limits for monopoles derived from the cross section constraints.

Significantly improved bounds compared to previous Fermilab searches.

Abstract

We present new limits on low mass accelerator-produced point-like Dirac magnetic monopoles trapped and bound in matter surrounding the D\O collision region of the Tevatron at Fermilab (experiment E-882). In the context of a Drell-Yan mechanism, we obtain cross section limits for the production of monopoles with magnetic charge values of 1, 2, 3, and 6 times the minimum Dirac charge of the order of picobarns, some hundred times smaller than found in similar previous Fermilab searches. Mass limits inferred from these cross section limits are presented.