Volume 358 - 36th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2019) - NU - Neutrino
Subluminal Magnetic Monopole Search with NOvA
M. Frank,* A. Antoshkin, C. Dukes, R. Ehrlich, E. Song
*corresponding author
Full text: pdf
Pre-published on: 2019 July 22
Published on:
Abstract
Proof of the existence of the magnetic monopole has eluded physicists for centuries. The NOvA far detector (FD), used for neutrino oscillation searches, has the ability to identify magnetic monopoles at subluminal velocities (v < c/100). With a surface area of over $4,000~ \mathrm{m}^{2}$ and a location near the earth's surface, the 14 kt FD provides unique sensitivity to potential low-mass monopoles unable to penetrate underground experiments. We have designed a novel data-driven triggering scheme that continuously searches the FD's live data stream for monopole-like patterns. At the offline level, the largest challenge in reconstructing monopoles is to reduce the 148,000 Hz speed-of-light cosmic ray background. This poster presents the trigger algorithm, the offline reconstruction algorithm, as well as the background rejection methods that will be used for the first NOvA monopole search.
Open Access