Search for Magnetic Monopole Pair Production in Ultraperipheral (Formula presented) Collisions at (Formula presented) with the ATLAS Detector at the LHC

Summary, in English

This Letter presents a search for highly ionizing magnetic monopoles in (Formula presented) of ultraperipheral (Formula presented) collision data at (Formula presented) collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. A new methodology that exploits the properties of clusters of hits reconstructed in the innermost silicon detector layers is introduced to study highly ionizing particles in heavy-ion data. No significant excess above the background, which is estimated using a data-driven technique, is observed. Using a nonperturbative semiclassical model, upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the cross section for pair production of monopoles with a single Dirac magnetic charge in the mass range of 20-150 GeV. Depending on the model, monopoles with a single Dirac magnetic charge and mass below 80-120 GeV are excluded. © 2025 CERN, for the ATLAS Collaboration.

• Author: J. Gallagher; T.P.A. Åkesson; K.S.V. Astrand; C. Doglioni; P.A. Ekman; V. Hedberg; H. Herde; B. Konya; E. Lytken; R. Poettgen; O. Smirnova; E.J. Wallin; L. Zwalinski
• Department/s: Particle and nuclear physics; eSSENCE: The e-Science Collaboration; Department of Physics
• Publishing year: 2025
• Language: English
• Publication/Series: Physical Review Letters
• Volume: 134
• Issue: 6
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.061803
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Topic: Subatomic Physics
• Keywords: Particle detectors; Photons; Silicon detectors; ATLAS detectors; Data driven technique; Heavy-ion data; Highly ionizing particles; Magnetic charges; Magnetic monopoles; Nonperturbative; Pair production; Property; Semiclassical model; Heavy ions
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 0031-9007