Search for ultrarelativistic magnetic monopoles with the Pierre Auger Observatory

H. WAHLBERG Y PIERRE AUGER COLLABORATION

PHYSICAL REVIEW D

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2016

1550-7998

We present a search for ultrarelativistic magnetic monopoles with the Pierre Auger Observatory.Such particles, possibly a relic of phase transitions in the early universe, would deposit a large amountof energy along their path through the atmosphere, comparable to that of ultrahigh-energy cosmicrays (UHECRs). The air shower profile of a magnetic monopole can be effectively distinguishedby the fluorescence detector from that of standard UHECRs. No candidate was found in the datacollected between 2004 and 2012, with an expected background of less than 0.1 event from UHECRs.The corresponding 90% confidence level (C.L.) upper limits on the flux of ultrarelativistic magnetic monopoles range from 10 −19 (cm 2 sr s) −1 for a Lorentz factor γ = 10 9 to 2.5×10 −21 (cm 2 sr s) −1 forγ = 10 12 . These results - the first obtained with a UHECR detector - improve previously publishedlimits by up to an order of magnitude.