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Title: Status of the evidence for a magnetic monopole

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:7314298

The experimental evidence supporting the detection of a moving magnetic monopole, by use of a balloon-borne array of track detectors, was presented. Although the results cannot be proved to have been produced by a monopole, they do not seem to have been produced by any nucleus. The very high, roughly constant ionization rate inferred from track etch rate measurements in a stack of Lexan detectors implied passage of a minimum-ionizing particle more highly charged than any known nucleus, yet the Cherenkov film detectors indicated a velocity less than about 0.68 times the speed of light and the size of the track in the nuclear emulsion indicated a velocity approximately equal to 0.5 times the speed of light. At this velocity the ionization rate of a highly electrically charged particle would have changed dramatically with pathlength unless its mass to charge ratio were far greater than that of a nucleus. (auth)

Research Organization:
California Univ., Berkeley (USA). Dept. of Physics
OSTI ID:
7314298
Report Number(s):
N-76-22140; NASA-CR-146807; TRN: 77-007604
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Subm-Sponsored by NASA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English