Search for nucleon decays induced by GUT magnetic monopoles with the MACRO experiment

M. Ambrosio, R. Antolini, G. Auriemma, D. Bakari, A. Baldini, G. C. Barbarino, B. C. Barish, G. Battistoni, Y. Becherini, R. Bellotti, C. Bemporad, P. Bernardini, H. Bilokon, C. Bloise, C. Bower, M. Brigida, S. Bussino, F. Cafagna, M. Calicchio, D. CampanaM. Carboni, R. Caruso, S. Cecchini, F. Cei, V. Chiarella, B. C. Choudhary, S. Coutu, M. Cozzi, G. de Cataldo, H. Dekhissi, C. de Marzo, I. de Mitri, J. Derkaoui, M. de Vincenzi, A. Di Credico, O. Erriquez, C. Favuzzi, C. Forti, P. Fusco, G. Giacomelli, G. Giannini, N. Giglietto, M. Giorgini, M. Grassi, A. Grillo, F. Guarino, C. Gustavino, A. Habig, K. Hanson, R. Heinz, E. Iarocci, E. Katsavounidis, I. Katsavounidis, E. Kearns, H. Kim, S. Kyriazopoulou, E. Lamanna, C. Lane, D. S. Levin, P. Lipari, N. P. Longley, M. J. Longo, F. Loparco, F. Maaroufi, G. Mancarella, G. Mandrioli, S. Manzoor, A. Margiotta, A. Marini, D. Martello, A. Marzari-Chiesa, M. N. Mazziotta, D. G. Michael, P. Monacelli, T. Montaruli, M. Monteno, S. Mufson, J. Musser, D. Nicolò, R. Nolty, C. Orth, G. Osteria, O. Palamara, V. Patera, L. Patrizii, R. Pazzi, C. W. Peck, L. Perrone, S. Petrera, P. Pistilli, V. Popa, A. Rainò, J. Reynoldson, F. Ronga, A. Rrhioua, C. Satriano, E. Scapparone, K. Scholberg, A. Sciubba, P. Serra, M. Sioli, G. Sirri, M. Sitta, P. Spinelli, M. Spinetti, M. Spurio, R. Steinberg, J. L. Stone, L. R. Sulak, A. Surdo, G. Tarle, V. Togo, M. Vakili, C. W. Walter, R. Webb

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Abstract

The interaction of a Grand Unification Magnetic Monopole with a nucleon can lead to a barion-number violating process in which the nucleon decays into a lepton and one or more mesons (catalysis of nucleon decay). In this paper we report an experimental study of the effects of a catalysis process in the MACRO detector. Using a dedicated analysis we obtain new magnetic monopole (MM) flux upper limits at the level of ∼ 3 · 10-16 cm-2 s-1 sr-1 for 1.1 · 10-4 ≤ |β| ≤ 5 · 10-3, based on the search for catalysis events in the MACRO data. We also analyze the dependence of the MM flux limit on the catalysis cross section.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)163-172
Number of pages10
JournalEuropean Physical Journal C
Volume26
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2002

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