Search for relativistic magnetic monopoles with the ANTARES neutrino telescope

Abstract: Magnetic monopoles are predicted in various unified gauge models and could be produced at intermediate mass scales. Their detection in a neutrino telescope is facilitated by the large amount of light emitted compared to that from muons. This paper reports on a search for upgoing relativistic magnetic monopoles with the ANTARES neutrino telescope using a data set of 116days of live time taken from December 2007 to December 2008. The one observed event is consistent with the expected atmospheric neutrino and muon background, leading to a 90% C.L. upper limit on the monopole flux between 1.3×10−17 and 8.9×10−17 cm−2 s−1 sr−1 for monopoles with velocity β ⩾0.625. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]