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 similar to 3 (.) 10(-16) cm(-2) s(-1) sr(-1) for 1.1(.) 10(-4) less than or equal to \beta\ less than or equal to 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. RI Cafagna, Francesco/A-9299-2010; Spurio, Maurizio/G-4170-2012; SCAPPARONE, EUGENIO/H-1805-2012; Lamanna, Ernesto/C-7658-2012; giglietto, nicola/I-8951-2012; Sirri, Gabriele/J-5067-2012 OI Cafagna, Francesco/0000-0002-7450-4784; Lamanna, Ernesto/0000-0002-7844-8230; Sirri, Gabriele/0000-0003-2626-2853
Search for nucleon decays induced by GUT magnetic monopoles with the MACRO experiment
CARUSO, ROSSELLA;
2002-01-01
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 similar to 3 (.) 10(-16) cm(-2) s(-1) sr(-1) for 1.1(.) 10(-4) less than or equal to \beta\ less than or equal to 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. RI Cafagna, Francesco/A-9299-2010; Spurio, Maurizio/G-4170-2012; SCAPPARONE, EUGENIO/H-1805-2012; Lamanna, Ernesto/C-7658-2012; giglietto, nicola/I-8951-2012; Sirri, Gabriele/J-5067-2012 OI Cafagna, Francesco/0000-0002-7450-4784; Lamanna, Ernesto/0000-0002-7844-8230; Sirri, Gabriele/0000-0003-2626-2853I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
