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arXiv · 2608.03888

Timing-Based Search for Magnetic Monopoles with the NOvA Detector on the Surface

NOvA Collaboration
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Abstract

We report a search for a magnetic monopole component of the cosmic-ray flux in a 2743-live-day exposure of the NOvA experiment's Far Detector, a 14 kt segmented liquid scintillator detector designed primarily to observe GeV-scale electron neutrinos. No events consistent with monopoles were observed, setting an upper limit on the flux of $8\times 10^{-16}~\mathrm{cm^{-2}s^{-1}sr^{-1}}$ at 90% C.L. for monopole speed $6\times 10^{-4} < \beta < 5\times 10^{-3}$ and mass greater than $10^{9}$ GeV. Because of NOvA's small overburden of 3 meters-water equivalent, this constraint covers a previously unexplored low-mass region.

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NOvA Collaboration. 2026-08-04. Timing-Based Search for Magnetic Monopoles with the NOvA Detector on the Surface. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21811524

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