Search for Relativistic Magnetic Monopoles with Eight Years of IceCube Data.

Rasha Abbasi ,K Woschnagg,S Robertson,C Kopper,A Fritz,J Stachurska,M Wolf,T Kintscher,W Kang,K Filimonov,S In,D Chirkin,O Botner,D Ryckbosch,D Berley,R Snihur,T Stuttard,T Grégoire,S Toscano,S Hickford,E Friedman,P Eller,A Schneider,A Obertacke Pollmann,M Plum,M Ahrens,S Bron,M Kauer,X Kang,K.-H Becker,R Cross,M Santander,Z Zhang,M Dunkman,R Halliday,J Kiryluk,R Hoffmann,D Seckel,S Schindler,D Tosi,C Pérez De Los Heros,K Meagher,R Koirala,S Sarkar,K Hanson,H Kolanoski,F Tenholt,K Helbing,D Kang,I Taboada,B Hokanson-Fasig,T Ruhe,T Glüsenkamp,M Stamatikos,J Sandroos,S Seunarine,A Turcati,C Argüelles,T Stezelberger,T Karg,C Finley,G Anton,P Schlunder,C Chen,A Franckowiak,M Ahlers,S Sclafani,R Bay,M Kowalski,D Grant,A Ishihara,D Pieloth,S Kopper,R Reimann,S Shefali,L Tomankova,H Niederhausen,J Hignight,T Schmidt,S Tilav,F Mcnally,C Günther,L Halve,J Braun,Y Li,K Clark,E Resconi,L Classen,M Richman,A Karle,M Tselengidou,W Rhode,E Bernardini,A Haungs,K Hoshina,A Porcelli,M Silva,A Steuer,J Stettner,K Satalecka,M Ackermann,S Benzvi,R Maruyama,K Mase,F Halzen,T Montaruli,S Baur,Z Chen,A Kappes,N Whitehorn,X Bai,J Vandenbroucke,P Desiati,A Burgman,T Stanev,M De With,A Olivas,N Park,C De Clercq,E Blaufuss,D Hebecker,A Hallgren,K Leonard,A Weindl,D Soldin,M Rameez,D Bindig,S Garrappa,A Balagopal V,J Madsen,H Schieler,K Rawlins,R Morse,U Katz,D Vannerom,R Engel,K Hultqvist,G Binder,L Gerhardt,N Iovine,J Gallagher,R An,C Rott,S Böser,N Kurahashi,D Mockler,N Van Eijndhoven,K Tollefson,K Andeen,L Köpke,C Walck,A Pizzuto,Cyril Martin Alispach ,Cristian Jesús Lozano Mariscal ,Chris Wendt ,Koun Choi ,J G González ,Gwenhaël De Wasseige ,Juan Carlos Díaz–Vélez ,X W Xu ,Stephan Meighen-Berger ,Johannes Werthebach ,Feng Huang ,Christian Haack ,Jannes Brostean-Kaiser ,Moritz Kellermann ,S E Sanchez Herrera ,Maria Prado Rodriguez ,Thomas Ehrhardt ,Giovanni Renzi ,Vedant Basu ,Michael Campana ,Saskia Philippen ,Spencer Griswold ,Elisa Lohfink ,M J Larson ,Sally-Ann Browne ,Matti Jansson ,Yuya Makino ,Ek Narayan Paudel ,Franziska Tischbein ,Jan Soedingrekso ,Michael Duvernois ,Michael Kovacevich ,B J P Jones ,Brian Clark ,Alexander Sandrock ,Najia Moureen Binte Amin ,Ch Weaver ,R W Moore ,Pranav Dave ,Christian Dappen ,Markus Dittmer ,Jean Pierre Twagirayezu ,D F Cowen ,Nora Valtonen-Mattila ,Emma Kun ,Frederik Hermann Lauber ,James Delaunay ,Bob Oeyen ,D Besson ,Paras Koundal ,C S Hill ,Jannis Necker ,Philipp Fürst ,Yuriy Popovych ,J L Lanfranchi ,Brandom Pries ,Martin Rongen ,Martin Ha Minh ,Georg Schwefer ,Nora Feigl ,M A Unland Elorrieta ,Erik Ganster ,Massimiliano Lincetto ,Maria Liubarska ,Chunfai Tung ,Ali Kheirandish ,Martin Pittermann ,Immacolata Carmen Rea ,Paul Coppin ,Yang Lyu ,Christoph Raab ,S R Klein ,Sarah Mancina ,Anastasia Maria Barbano ,Ryan Burley ,William Luszczak ,Erin Carnie-Bronca ,Devyn Rysewyk Cantu ,John Hardin ,Kendall Mahn ,K D Hoffman ,S C Nowicki ,Chiara Bellenghi ,Robert Stein ,Tetiana Kozynets ,Frank G Schröder ,S Ter–Antonyan ,Christian Spiering ,A R Fazely ,Emily Dvorak ,Mehmet Gündüz ,E J Roberts ,Felix Henningsen ,Pablo Correa ,Cristina Lagunas Gualda ,Shigeru Yoshida ,Larissa Paul ,A A Alves ,Tyce Deyoung ,W Y ,G W Sullivan ,Raffaela Busse ,J P Lazar ,Abdul Rehman ,G C Hill ,Shiqi Yu ,Kunal Deoskar ,Tyler Anderson ,Minjin Jeong ,Christoph Tönnis ,Etienne Bourbeau ,Tobias Hoinka ,Hrvoje Dujmović ,Julian Saffer ,Sukeerthi Dharani ,Grant Parker ,Matthías Huber ,Tomas Kontrimas ,Q R Liu ,Thomas Mcelroy ,Krijn De Vries ,Uwe Naumann ,J L Kelley ,Richard Naab ,Raamis Hussain ,A Dı́az ,Lisa Johanna Schumacher ,David Kappesser ,Andrés Medina ,Ken'ichi Kin ,Emma C Hettinger ,J V Santen ,Bunheng Ty ,Simeon Reusch ,Philip Weigel ,J W Lee ,Simon Hauser ,Francesco Lucarelli ,J M Conrad ,C F Turley ,Mark Weyrauch ,Leander Fischer ,Benedikt Riedel ,Alexander Trettin ,Ben Smithers ,Maximilian Karl Scharf ,Stef Verpoest ,G T Przybylski ,J H Adams ,P B Price ,Sebastian Fiedlschuster ,Christopher Wiebusch ,Federica Bradascio ,Thomas Huber ,Johan Wulff ,Sarah Pieper ,J A Aguilar ,Barbara Skrzypek ,Ioana Codrina Maris ,Julia Becker Tjus ,Federico Bontempo ,Martina Karl ,Mirco Hünnefeld ,Tianlu Yuan ,Agnieszka Leszczyńska ,Ankur Sharma ,Judith Schneider ,Matthew J Weiss ,G S Japaridze ,T K Gaisser ,Gerrit Wrede ,Lu Lu ,Matthias Boddenberg ,G M Spiczak ,Alan Coleman ,Roxanne Turcotte ,Timo Stürwald ,Yosuke Ashida ,Daniel Williams ,Hannah Erpenbeck ,Ryo Nagai ,Amirreza Raissi ,D J Koskinen ,Jan Weldert ,Christian Spannfellner ,Marie Oehler ,Alfonso García ,James Vincent Mead ,Abhishek Desai ,S W Barwick ,Gabriel Collin ,Jessie Micallef ,Hershal Pandya ,Timothyblake Watson ,Jakob Böttcher ,Sarah Mechbal ,Jürgen Borowka ,Theo Glauch ,Josh Peterson ,Benjamin Bastian ,Lilly Peters ,Christian Gläser ,N N Lad ,Le Viet Nguyen ,J J Beatty ,Marjon Moulai ,P A Evenson ,Merlin Schaufel ,Mehr Nisa ,Erin O’sullivan ,Ibrahim Safa ,Kwok Lung Fan ,Sreetama Goswami ,Andrew Ludwig ,Gerrit Roellinghoff ,Spencer Axani ,Alexander Harnisch ,John Evans ,D B Fox ,Maximilian Meier ,J P Yañez ,Patrick Reichherzer ,D V Pankova ,Summer Blot ,H.-P Dembinski ,Ava Ghadimi ,Aaron Fienberg

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.128.051101

Abstract

We present an all-sky 90% confidence level upper limit on the cosmic flux of relativistic magnetic monopoles using 2886days of IceCube data. The analysis was optimized for monopole speeds between 0.750c and 0.995c, without any explicit restriction on the monopole mass. We constrain the flux of relativistic cosmic magnetic monopoles to a level below 2.0×10^{-19} cm^{-2} s^{-1} sr^{-1} over the majority of the targeted speed range. This result constitutes the most strict upper limit to date for magnetic monopoles with β≳0.8 and up to β∼0.995 and fills the gap between existing limits on the cosmic flux of nonrelativistic and ultrarelativistic magnetic monopoles.

Highlights

We present an all-sky 90% confidence level upper limit on the cosmic flux of relativistic magnetic monopoles using 2886 days of IceCube data
grand unified theories (GUTs) predict the existence of stable magnetic monopoles (‘t Hooft-Polyakov monopoles) that arise when the gauge symmetry of the GUT breaks into the electromagnetic U(1) symmetry, creating a topological soliton that must carry magnetic charge [2,3,4]
Magnetic monopoles could have formed in the early Universe as the temperature of the primordial plasma dropped below the energy scale of the GUT symmetry breaking [6,7]

Summary

Search for Relativistic Magnetic Monopoles with Eight Years of IceCube Data

R. Abbasi,17 M. Ackermann,59 J. Adams,18 J. A. Aguilar,12 M. Ahlers,22 M. Ahrens,50 C. Alispach,28 A. A. Alves, Jr.,31 N. M. Amin,42 R. An,14 K. Andeen,40 T. Anderson,56 G. Anton,26 C. Argüelles,14 Y. Ashida,38 S. Axani,15 X. Bai,46 A. Balagopal V.,38 A. Barbano,28 S. W. Barwick,30 B. Bastian,59 V. Basu,38 S. Baur,12 R. Bay,8 J. J. Beatty,20,21 K.-H. Becker,58 J. Becker Tjus,11 C. Bellenghi,27 S. BenZvi,48 D. Berley,19 E. Bernardini,59,* D. Z. Besson,34,† G. Binder,8,9 D. Bindig,58 E. Blaufuss,19 S. Blot,59 M. Boddenberg,1 F. Bontempo,31 J. Borowka,1 S. Böser,39 O. Botner,57 J. Böttcher,1 E. Bourbeau,22 F. Bradascio,59 J. Braun,38 S. Bron,28 J. Brostean-Kaiser,59 S. Browne,32 A. Burgman,57 R. T. Burley,2 R. S. Busse,41 M. A. Campana,45 E. G. Carnie-Bronca,2 C. Chen,6 Z. Chen,51 D. Chirkin,38 K. Choi,52 B. A. Clark,24 K. Clark,33 L. Classen,41 A. Coleman,42 G. H. Collin,15 J. M. Conrad,15 P. Coppin,13 P. Correa,13 D. F. Cowen,55,56 R. Cross,48 C. Dappen,1 P. Dave,6 C. De Clercq,13 J. J. DeLaunay,54 H. Dembinski,42 K. Deoskar,50 A. Desai,38 P. Desiati,38 K. D. de Vries,13 G. de Wasseige,13 M. de With,10 T. DeYoung,24 S. Dharani,1 A. Diaz,15 J. C. Díaz-Velez,38 M. Dittmer,41 H. Dujmovic,31 M. Dunkman,56 M. A. DuVernois,38 E. Dvorak,46 T. Ehrhardt,39 P. Eller,27 R. Engel,31,32 H. Erpenbeck,1 J. Evans,19 P. A. Evenson,42 K. L. Fan,19 A. R. Fazely,7 N. Feigl,10 S. Fiedlschuster,26 A. T. Fienberg,56 K. Filimonov,8 C. Finley,50 L. Fischer,59 D. Fox,55 A. Franckowiak,11,59 E. Friedman,19 A. Fritz,39 P. Fürst,1 T. K. Gaisser,42 J. Gallagher,37 E. Ganster,1 A. Garcia,14 S. Garrappa,59 L. Gerhardt,9 A. Ghadimi,54 C. Glaser,57 T. Glauch,27 T. Glüsenkamp,26 J. G. Gonzalez,42 S. Goswami,54 D. Grant,24 T. Gregoire,56 S. Griswold,48 M. Gündüz,11 C. Günther,1 C. Haack,27 A. Hallgren,57 R. Halliday,24 L. Halve,1 F. Halzen,38 M. Ha Minh,27 K. Hanson,38 J. Hardin,38 A. A. Harnisch,24 A. Haungs,31 S. Hauser,1 D. Hebecker,10 K. Helbing,58 F. Henningsen,27 E. C. Hettinger,24 S. Hickford,58 J. Hignight,25 C. Hill,16 G. C. Hill,2 K. D. Hoffman,19 R. Hoffmann,58 T. Hoinka,23 B. Hokanson-Fasig,38 K. Hoshina,38,‡ F. Huang,56 M. Huber,27 T. Huber,31 K. Hultqvist,50 M. Hünnefeld,23 R. Hussain,38 S. In,52 N. Iovine,12 A. Ishihara,16 M. Jansson,50 G. S. Japaridze,5 M. Jeong,52 B. J. P. Jones,4 D. Kang,31 W. Kang,52 X. Kang,45 A. Kappes,41 D. Kappesser,39 T. Karg,59 M. Karl,27 A. Karle,38 U. Katz,26 M. Kauer,38 M. Kellermann,1 J. L. Kelley,38 A. Kheirandish,56 K. Kin,16 T. Kintscher,59 J. Kiryluk,51 S. R. Klein,8,9 R. Koirala,42 H. Kolanoski,10 T. Kontrimas,27 L. Köpke,39 C. Kopper,24 S. Kopper,54 D. J. Koskinen,22 P. Koundal,31 M. Kovacevich,45 M. Kowalski,10,59 T. Kozynets,22 E. Kun,11 N. Kurahashi,45 N. Lad,59 C. Lagunas Gualda,59 J. L. Lanfranchi,56 M. J. Larson,19 F. Lauber,58 J. P. Lazar,14,38 J. W. Lee,52 K. Leonard,38 A. Leszczyńska,32 Y. Li,56 M. Lincetto,11 Q. R. Liu,38 M. Liubarska,25 E. Lohfink,39 C. J. Lozano Mariscal,41 L. Lu,38 F. Lucarelli,28 A. Ludwig,24,35 W. Luszczak,38 Y. Lyu,8,9 W. Y. Ma,59 J. Madsen,38 K. B. M. Mahn,24 Y. Makino,38 S. Mancina,38 I. C. Mariş,12 R. Maruyama,43 K. Mase,16 T. McElroy,25 F. McNally,36 J. V. Mead,22 K. Meagher,38 S. Mechbal,59 A. Medina,21 M. Meier,16 S. Meighen-Berger,27 J. Micallef,24 D. Mockler,12 T. Montaruli,28 R. W. Moore,25 R. Morse,38 M. Moulai,15 R. Naab,59 R. Nagai,16 U. Naumann,58 J. Necker,59 L. V. Nguyễn,24 H. Niederhausen,27 M. U. Nisa,24 S. C. Nowicki,24 A. Obertacke Pollmann,58 M. Oehler,31 B. Oeyen,29 A. Olivas,19 E. O’Sullivan,57 H. Pandya,42 D. V. Pankova,56 N. Park,33 G. K. Parker,4 E. N. Paudel,42 L. Paul,40 C. Perez de los Heros ,57 L. Peters,1 J. Peterson,38 S. Philippen,1 D. Pieloth,23 S. Pieper,58 M. Pittermann,32 A. Pizzuto,38 M. Plum,40 Y. Popovych,39 A. Porcelli,29 M. Prado Rodriguez,38 P. B. Price,8 B. Pries,24 G. T. Przybylski,9 C. Raab,12 A. Raissi,18 M. Rameez,22 K. Rawlins,3 I. C. Rea,27 A. Rehman,42 P. Reichherzer,11 R. Reimann,1 G. Renzi,12 E. Resconi,27 S. Reusch,59 W. Rhode,23 M. Richman,45 B. Riedel,38 E. J. Roberts,2 S. Robertson,8,9 G. Roellinghoff,52 M. Rongen,39 C. Rott,49,52 T. Ruhe,23 D. Ryckbosch,29 D. Rysewyk Cantu,24 I. Safa,14,38 J. Saffer,32 S. E. Sanchez Herrera,24 A. Sandrock,23 J. Sandroos,39 M. Santander,54 S. Sarkar,44 S. Sarkar,25 K. Satalecka,59 M. Scharf,1 M. Schaufel,1 H. Schieler,31 S. Schindler,26 P. Schlunder,23 T. Schmidt,19 A. Schneider,38 J. Schneider,26 F. G. Schröder,31,42 L. Schumacher,27 G. Schwefer,1 S. Sclafani,45 D. Seckel,42 S. Seunarine,47 A. Sharma,57 S. Shefali,32 M. Silva,38 B. Skrzypek,14 B. Smithers,4 R. Snihur,38 J. Soedingrekso,23 D. Soldin,42 C. Spannfellner,27 G. M. Spiczak,47 C. Spiering,59,† J. Stachurska,59 M. Stamatikos,21 T. Stanev,42 R. Stein,59 J. Stettner,1 A. Steuer,39 T. Stezelberger,9 T. Stürwald,58 T. Stuttard,22 G. W. Sullivan,19 I. Taboada,6 F. Tenholt,11 S. Ter-Antonyan,7 S. Tilav,42 F. Tischbein,1 K. Tollefson,24 L. Tomankova,11 C. Tönnis,53 S. Toscano,12 D. Tosi,38 A. Trettin,59 M. Tselengidou,26 C. F. Tung,6 A. Turcati,27 R. Turcotte,31 C. F. Turley,56 J. P. Twagirayezu,24 B. Ty,38 M. A. Unland Elorrieta,41 N. Valtonen-Mattila,57 J. Vandenbroucke,38 N. van Eijndhoven,13 D. Vannerom,15 J. van Santen,59 S. Verpoest,29 C. Walck,50 T. B. Watson,4 C. Weaver,24 P. Weigel,15 A. Weindl,31 M. J. Weiss,56 J. Weldert,39 C. Wendt,38 J. Werthebach,23 M. Weyrauch,32 N. Whitehorn,24,35 C. H. Wiebusch,1 D. R. Williams,54 M. Wolf,27 K. Woschnagg,8 G. Wrede,26 J. Wulff,11 X. W. Xu,7 J. P. Yanez,25 S. Yoshida,16 S. Yu,24 T. Yuan,38 and Z. Zhang51

Published by the American Physical Society

Analysis level