Status of the evidence for a magnetic monopole

Technical Report · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1975

OSTI ID:7314298

Price, P B

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
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

645101* -- High Energy Physics-- Particle Interactions & Properties-Experimental-- Electromagnetic Interactions & Properties
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ELECTRIC CHARGES
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
IONIZATION
MAGNETIC MONOPOLES
MASS
MONOPOLES
PARTICLE IDENTIFICATION
POSTULATED PARTICLES
RADIATION DETECTION
VELOCITY