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.
Ambrosio M., Antolini R., Auriemma G., Bakari D., Baldini A., Barbarino G.C., et al. (2002). Search for nucleon decays induced by GUT magnetic monopoles with the MACRO experiment. THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL. C, PARTICLES AND FIELDS, 26(2), 163-172 [10.1140/epjc/s2002-01045-x].
Search for nucleon decays induced by GUT magnetic monopoles with the MACRO experiment
Becherini Y.;Giacomelli G.;Margiotta A.;Serra P.;Sioli M.;Spurio M.;
2002
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.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
