Abstract
We describe a search method for fast moving (β = v/c > 5 × 10-3) magnetic monopoles using simultaneously the scintillator, streamer tube and track-etch subdetectors of the MACRO apparatus. The first two subdetectors are used primarily for the identification of candidates while the track-etch one is used as the final tool for their rejection or confirmation. Using this technique, a first sample of more than two years of data has been analyzed without any evidence of a magnetic monopole. We set a 90% CL upper limit to the local monopole flux of 1.5 × 10-15 cm-2 s-1 sr-1 in the velocity range 5 × 10-3 ≤ β ≤ 0.99 and for nucleon decay catalysis cross-section smaller than ∼1 mb
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 27-41 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Astroparticle Physics |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2002 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We gratefully acknowledge the support of the director and of the staff of the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso and the invaluable assistance of the technical staff of the Institutions participating in the experiment. We thank the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the US Department of Energy and the US National Science Foundation for their generous support of the MACRO experiment. We thank INFN, ICTP (Trieste), WorldLab and NATO for providing fellowships and grants (FAI) for non-Italian citizens.