CERN: The LHC MoEDAL Experiment

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CERN: The MoEDAL Experiment

The Monopole and Exotics Detector at the LHC (MoEDAL) was the seventh detector to be approved by the LHC Management board. It will share the cavern at Point 8 with LHCb and will search for the massive stable (or pseudo-stable) particles, such as magnetic monopoles or dyons, produced at the LHC.

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AIMS OF THE MoEDAL EXPERIMENT

In 2010 the LHC opened up a new energy regime in which we can search for new physics beyond the Standard Model. The search strategy for exotics planned for the main LHC detectors can be extended with dedicated experiments designed to enhance, in a complementary way, the physics reach of the LHC.

The MoEDAL (Monopole and Exotics Detector at the LHC) project is such an experiment. The prime motivation of MoEDAL is to directly search for the Magnetic Monopole or Dyon and other highly ionizing Stable (or pseudo-stable) Massive Particles (SMPs) at the LHC.

MoEDAL Nuclear Track Detectors (NTDs) will be able to record the tracks of highly ionizing particles with magnetic/electric charges greater than 3gD (≡ 206e), the detection of even one magnetic monopole or dyon that fully penetrated a MoEDAL NTD stack is expected to be distinctive.

Another important area of physics beyond the Standard Model that can be addressed by MoEDAL is the existence of SMPs with single electrical charge which provide a second category of particle that is heavily ionizing by virtue of its small speed. The most obvious possibility for an SMP is that one or more new states exist which carry a new conserved, or almost conserved, global quantum number.

For example, SUSY with R-parity, extra dimensions with KK-parity, and several other models fall into this category. The lightest of the new states will be stable, due to the conservation of this new parity, and depending on quantum numbers, mass spectra, and interaction strengths, one or more higher-lying states may also be stable or meta-stable.

The third class of SMP which could be accessed by MoEDAL has multiple electric charge such as the black hole remnant, or long-lived doubly charged Higgs bosons. SMPs with magnetic charge, single or multiple electric charge and with Z/β (β=v/c) as low as five can, in principle, be detected by the CR39 nuclear track detectors, putting them within the physics reach of MoEDAL.

THE MoEDAL DETECTOR

The MoEDAL detector is comprised of an array of plastic Nuclear Track Detectors (NTDs) deployed around the (Point-8) intersection region of the LHCb detector, in the VELO (VErtex LOcator) cavern. The array consists of NTD stacks, ten layers deep, in Aluminium housings attached to the walls and ceiling of the VELO cavern.

The maximum possible surface area available for detectors is around 25 m2, although the final deployed area could be somewhat less due to the developing requirements of the infrastructure of the LHCb detector. A more detailed description of the MoEDAL detectors and the track-etch detector technology, can be found in the MoEDAL TDR

When a charged particle crosses a plastic nuclear track detector it produces damages at the level of polymeric bounds in a small cylindrical region around its trajectory forming he so-called latent track. The damage produced is dependent on the energy released inside the cylindrical region i.e. the Restricted Energy Loss (REL) which is a function of the charge Z and β=v/c (c the velocity of light in vacuum) of the incident highly ionizing particle (ion).

The subsequent etching of the solid nuclear detectors leads to the formation of etch-pit cones. These conical pits are usually of micrometer dimensions and can be observed with an optical microscope. Their size and shape yield information about charge, energy and direction of motion of the incident ion.


• http://web.me.com/jamespinfold/MoEDAL_site/Welcome.html

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Produced by: CERN Video Productions
Director: CERN Video Productions

© CERN 2010

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• cern
• lhc
• moedal
• experiment
• monopole
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• exotics
• detector
• lhcb
• highly
• ionizing
• stable
• pseudo-stable
• massive
• particles
• smps
• magnetic
• monopoles
• dyons
• energy
• detectors
• experiments
• quantum
• physics
• electric
• charge
• standard
• model
• susy
• extra
• dimensions
• parity
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• higgs
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• technology
• ion

[JOHNINCOLUMBUS]

Science leaps forward into a bright future, religion tries to keep eveyone in the dark past.

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[supergiuovane]

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[justdan54115]

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[chrispikeyp]

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[ttwilkable]

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[TheSanovita]

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