Search for slow magnetic monopoles with the NOvA detector on the surface

/ Authors

M. Acero, P. Adamson, L. Aliaga, T. Alion, V. Allakhverdian, N. Anfimov, A. Antoshkin, E. Arrieta-Diaz, L. Asquith, A. Aurisano

and 188 more authors

A. Back, C. Backhouse, M. Baird, N. Balashov, P. Baldi, B. Bambah, S. Bashar, K. Bays, S. Bending, R. Bernstein, V. Bhatnagar, B. Bhuyan, J. Bian, J. Blair, A. Booth, P. Bouř, R. Bowles, C. Bromberg, N. Buchanan, A. Butkevich, S. Calvez, T. Carroll, E. Catano-Mur, S. Childress, B. Choudhary, T. Coan, M. Colo, L. Corwin, L. Cremonesi, G. S. Davies, P. Derwent, P. Ding, Z. Djurcic, M. Dolce, D. Doyle, D. Duenas Tonguino, P. Dung, E. Dukes, H. Duyang, S. Edayath, R. Ehrlich, M. Elkins, G. Feldman, P. Filip, W. Flanagan, J. Franc, M. Frank, H. Gallagher, R. Gandrajula, F. Gao, S. Germani, A. Giri, R. Gomes, M. Goodman, V. Grichine, M. Groh, R. Group, B. Guo, A. Habig, F. Hakl, A. Hall, J. Hartnell, R. Hatcher, K. Heller, J. Hewes, A. Himmel, A. Holin, J. Huang, J. Hylen, J. Jarosz, F. Jediný, C. Johnson, M. Judah, I. Kakorin, D. Kalra, D. Kaplan, R. Keloth, O. Klimov, L. Koerner, L. Kolupaeva, S. Kotelnikov, C. Kullenberg, M. Kubu, A. Kumar, C. Kuruppu, V. Kus, T. Lackey, K. Lang, L. Li, S. Lin, A. Lister, M. Lokajicek, S. Luchuk, S. Magill, W. Mann, M. Marshak, M. Martinez-Casales, V. Matveev, B. Mayes, D. Méndez, M. Messier, H. Meyer, T. Miao, W. Miller, S. Mishra, A. Mislivec, R. Mohanta, A. Moren, A. Morozova, L. Mualem, M. Muether, S. Mufson, K. Mulder, R. Murphy, J. Musser, D. Naples, N. Nayak, J. Nelson, R. Nichol, E. Niner, A. Norman, A. Norrick, T. Nosek, A. Olshevskiy, T. Olson, J. Paley, R. Patterson, G. Pawloski, O. Petrova, R. Petti, R. Plunkett, A. Rafique, V. Raj, B. Ramson, B. Rebel, P. Rojas, V. Ryabov, O. Samoylov, M. C. Sanchez, S. Sánchez Falero, P. Shanahan, A. Sheshukov, P. Singh, V. Singh, E. Smith, J. Smolík, P. Snopok, N. Solomey, E. Song, A. Sousa, K. Soustruznik, M. Strait, L. Suter, A. Sutton, S. Swain, C. Sweeney, B. Tapia Oregui, P. Tas, R. B. Thayyullathil, J. Thomas, E. Tiras, D. Torbunov, J. Tripathi, J. Trokan-Tenorio, Y. Torun, J. Urheim, P. Vahle, Z. Vallari, J. Vasel, P. Vokac, T. Vrba, M. Wallbank, Z. Wang, T. Warburton, M. Wetstein, D. Whittington, D. A. Wickremasinghe, S. Wojcicki, J. Wolcott, Y. Xiao, A. Yallappa Dombara, K. Yonehara, S. Yu, Y. Yu, S. Zadorozhnyy, J. Zálešák, Y. Zhang, R. Zwaska

/ Abstract

We report a search for a magnetic monopole component of the cosmic-ray flux in a 95-day exposure of the NOvA experiment’s Far Detector, a 14 kt segmented liquid scintillator detector designed primarily to observe GeV-scale electron neutrinos. No events consistent with monopoles were observed, setting an upper limit on the flux of 2 × 10−14 cm−2 s−1 sr−1 at 90% C.L. for monopole speed 6 × 10−4 < β < 5 × 10−3 and mass greater than 5 × 108 GeV. Because of NOvA’s small overburden of 3 meters-water equivalent, this constraint covers a previously unexplored low-mass region.

Journal: Physical Review D

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.103.012007