Low-Mass Magnetic Monopoles in the Galaxy: Simulations and Comparison with Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic-Ray Data
Origin and composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays are still uncertain, particularly the rare events exceeding the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff and whose apparent arrival directions point to the Local Void. This work is an in-depth investigation of the possibility that such cosmic rays contain low-mass magnetic monopoles predicted in several recent theoretical models. Using a custom extension to CRPropa, a state-of-the-art code for modeling cosmic ray propagation, monopoles are tracked in the galactic environment under realistic assumptions on mass, magnetic charge, and initial phase-space distributions. Our simulations demonstrate that relic MMs follow filamentary ``Galactic magnetic funnels'', producing anisotropic arrival directions at Earth. The expected arrival directions are concentrated in a small region of the sky, which has significant implications for the design and interpretation of future searches. A comparison of the simulated arrival directions with the Pierre Auger Observatory dataset shows that the null hypothesis - no monopole contribution - is statistically preferred for the majority of cases. Using a profile-likelihood analysis that incorporates both directional and energy information, we set 90% C.L. upper limits on the integral MM flux of $< 2.1\times10^{-23}$ $\mathrm{cm^{-2}s^{-1}sr^{-1}}$.