Pair production of magnetic monopoles and stable high-electric-charge objects in proton–proton and heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

We describe pair-production models of spin-0 and spin-½ magnetic monopoles and high-electric-charge objects (HECOs) in proton–proton (pp) and heavy-ion collisions, considering both the Drell–Yan (DY) and the photon-fusion processes. In particular, we extend the DY production model of spin-½ HECOs to include Z 0-boson exchange for pp collisions. Furthermore, we explore spin-½ and, for the first time, spin-0 production in ultraperipheral heavy-ion collisions. With matrix element calculations and equivalent photon fluxes implemented in MadGraph5_aMC@NLO, we present leading-order production cross sections of these mechanisms in TeV pp collisions and TeV ultraperipheral lead–lead collisions at the LHC. While the mass range accessible in ultraperipheral lead–lead collisions is much lower than that in pp collisions, we find that the theoretical production cross sections are significantly enhanced in the former for masses below 82 GeV.