{"id":36728,"date":"2020-04-29T14:38:09","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T12:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"\/gruppo1\/?page_id=36728"},"modified":"2022-04-11T12:01:38","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T10:01:38","slug":"the-moedal-experiment","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"\/gruppo1\/en\/the-moedal-experiment\/","title":{"rendered":"MoEDAL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

The MoEDAL experiment
(Monopole & Exotics Detector at the LHC) <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

MoEDAL<\/a> is an experiment at the <\/span>Large Hadron Collider<\/span> (LHC<\/a>) at CERN designed to search for magnetic monopoles and other exotic particles.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Magnetic monopoles are the counterpart to electric charge in Maxwell equations. But, while the are distinct particles with positive or negative electric charge, it’s impossible to\u00a0 isolate a define magnetic pole.\u00a0 Infact, if we take a magnet and break it, we’ll always have two magnets, each one with is own south pole and north pole. The existence of magnetic monopoles was hypothesized by Paul Dirac in 1931 to explain electric charge quantization. Their search\u00a0 has continued over the decades with experiments at accelerators and in the cosmic radiation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pioneer and leader in the search for magnetic monopoles was Giorgio Giacomelli to whom the MoEDAL collaboration dedicated his first article. <\/a><\/span>Under the guidance of Giacomelli, the Bologna Section played a fundamental role in the main experiments in the sector. <\/span>Among all, it is worth mentioning the MACRO experiment<\/span> (Monopole, Astrophysics and\u00a0 Cosmic Ray Observatory) leaded at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso from 1988 to 2000.<\/span><\/p>\n

MoEDAL is installed near the LHCb experiment, at Point 8 on the LHC ring. <\/span>It uses two detection systems, both passive<\/span>: sheets of CR39 and Makrofol as nuclear track detectors <\/span><\/span>(NTD<\/span><\/a>)\u00a0and Alluminun bars as Monopole Trapping Detector (MTD<\/a>). MoEDAL\u2019s radiation environment is monitored by\u00a0 <\/span>the TimePix Radiation Monitoring System<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Layout<\/p>\n

Layout of the MoEDAL experiment<\/p>\n

In the nuclear track detectors, electrically and\/or magnetically charged particles produce permanent damage in the structure of the materials. After a chemical etching this damage\u00a0 appears as conical hole under an optical microscope, whose dimensions are related to the properties of the particle. <\/span><\/p>\n

In MTD <\/span>aluminum bars act as a trap for magnetic charge. <\/span><\/span>The unmistakable signal of a trapped monopole is sought by scanning the detectors with<\/span> a magnetometer of very high sensitivity<\/span> and<\/span> stability<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Bologna team has full responsability of the nuclear track detector, that is its calibration, construction, chemical etching and analysis.\u00a0 As no signal was found compatible with what was expected for a magnetic monopole, new lower limits were placed on the mass of these particles. The first publication based on NTD analysis is in progress.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n


Contact persons for INFN Sezione di Bologna
<\/strong>Laura Patrizii<\/a> Deputy Spokesperson
Gabriele Sirri<\/a> NTD Scanning & Analysis Co-Coordinator
Vincent Togo<\/a> NTD Sub-detector Coordinator<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publications<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

Degrees and PhD opportunities<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The MoEDAL experiment (Monopole & Exotics Detector at the LHC) MoEDAL is an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN designed to search for magnetic monopoles and other exotic particles.\u00a0 Magnetic monopoles are the counterpart to electric charge in Maxwell equations. But, while the are distinct particles with positive or negative electric charge, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-page-builder-no-sidebar.php","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-36728","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/gruppo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"\/gruppo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"\/gruppo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/gruppo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/gruppo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36728"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"\/gruppo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38306,"href":"\/gruppo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36728\/revisions\/38306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/gruppo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}