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

Publication at Faculty of Mathematics and Physics |
2021

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 x 10(-14) cm(-2) s(-1) sr(-1) at 90% C.L. for monopole speed 6 x 10(-4) < beta < 5 x 10(-3) and mass greater than 5 x 10(8) GeV.

Because of NOvA's small overburden of 3 meters-water equivalent, this constraint covers a previously unexplored low-mass region.