Related papers: Nuclear Track Detectors. Searches for Exotic Parti…
In this paper we report a search for intermediate mass magnetic monopoles and nuclearites using CR39 and Makrofol Nuclear Track Detectors (NTDs) of the SLIM large area experiment, 440 m^2 exposed at the high altitude laboratory of…
The search for rare particles in the cosmic radiation remains one of the main aims of non-accelerator particle astrophysics. Experiments at high altitude allow lower mass thresholds with respect to detectors at sea level or underground. The…
Several improvements were made for Nuclear Track Detectors (NTDs) used for environmental studies and for particle searches. A new method was used to determine the bulk etch rate of CR39 and Makrofol NTDs. It is based on the simultaneous…
The search for magnetic monopoles in the cosmic radiation remains one of the main aims of non-accelerator particle astrophysics. Experiments at high altitude allow lower mass thresholds with respect to detectors at sea level or underground.…
We discuss the properties of cosmic ray nuclearites, from the point of view of their search with large nuclear track detector arrays exposed at different altitudes, in particular with the SLIM experiment at the Chacaltaya high altitude lab…
The SLIM experiment is a large array of nuclear track detectors located at the Chacaltaya High Altitude Laboratory (5260 m a.s.l.). The preliminary results from the analysis of ~383 m^2 exposed for 4.07 y are here reported. The detector is…
SLIM is a large area experiment (440 m2) installed at the Chacaltaya cosmic ray laboratory since 2001, and about 100 m2 at Koksil, Himalaya, since 2003. It is devoted to the search for intermediate mass magnetic monopoles (107-1013 GeV/c2)…
The SLIM experiment was a large array of nuclear track detectors located at the Chacaltaya high altitude Laboratory (5230 m a.s.l.). The detector was in particular sensitive to Intermediate Mass Magnetic Monopoles, with masses 10^5 < M…
During the analysis of the CR39 Nuclear Track Detectors (NTDs) of the SLIM experiment exposed at the high altitude lab of Chacaltaya (Bolivia) we observed a sequence of puzzling etch-pits. We made a detailed investigation of all the CR39…
This paper describes an experimental search for GUT magnetic monopoles in the MACRO experiment using the nuclear track subdetector CR39. After discussing the working principle, the charge resolution and the calibration of the detector, the…
We report on the search for Strange Quark Matter (SQM) and charged Q-balls with the SLIM experiment at the Chacaltaya High Altitude Laboratory (5230 m a.s.l.) from 2001 to 2005. The SLIM experiment was a 427 m$^{2}$ array of Nuclear Track…
The final results of the MACRO experiment on the search for GUT supermassive magnetic monopoles in the penetrating cosmic radiation are presented and discussed. The 90% CL upper limits are at the level of 1.5 - 2 x 10^-16 cm^-2 s^-1 sr^-1…
The nuclear track detector CR39 was calibrated with different ions of different energies. Due to the low detection threshold (Z/beta~6e) and the good charge resolution (sigma_Z ~ 0.2e for 6e < Z/beta <83e with 2 measurements), the detector…
The calibration of the CR39 and Makrofol Nuclear Track Detectors of the MoEDAL experiment at the CERN-LHC was performed by exposing stacks of detector foils to heavy ion beams with energies ranging from 340 MeV/nucleon to 150 GeV/nucleon.…
The SLIM experiment was an array of 427 m^2 of nuclear track detectors, exposed at a high altitude laboratory (Chacaltaya, Bolivia, 5230 m a.s.l.), for ~4.22 years. SLIM was sensitive to downgoing intermediate mass magnetic monopoles with…
We developed a new method for determining the bulk etch rate velocity based on both cone height and base diameter measurements of the etched tracks. This method is applied here for the calibration of CR39 and Makrofol nuclear track…
In this paper we present the results of a search for nuclearites in the penetrating cosmic radiation using the scintillator and track-etch subdetectors of the MACRO apparatus. The analyses cover the beta =v/c range at the detector depth…
New calibrations of CR39 and Makrofol nuclear track detectors have been obtained using 158 A GeV Pb (82+) and In (49+) ions; a new method for the bulk etch rate determination, using both cone height and base diameter measurements was…
Massive rare particles have been searched for in the penetrating cosmic radiation using the MACRO apparatus at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories. Liquid scintillators, streamer tubes and nuclear track detectors have been used to search…
Various phenomenological models presented over the years have hinted at the possible presence of strangelets, which are nuggets of Strange Quark Matter (SQM), in cosmic rays. One way to search for such rare events is through the deployment…