Hunting magnetic monopoles and more with MoEDAL at the LHC

The MoEDAL experiment at the LHC is optimised to detect highly-ionising particles such as magnetic monopoles, dyons and (multiply) electrically-charged stable massive particles predicted in a number of theoretical scenarios. MoEDAL, deployed in the LHCb cavern, combines passive nuclear track detectors with magnetic monopole trapping volumes, while backgrounds are being monitored with an array of MediPix detectors. The detector concept and its physics reach is presented with emphasis given to recent results on monopoles.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; Contributed to the 13th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs, Thessaloniki, May 15-19, 2017; based on arXiv:1411.7651, arXiv:1612.07012 and arXiv:1703.0714

ATLAS Physics Results

The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN has been successfully taking data since the end of 2009 in proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, and in heavy ion collisions. In these lectures, some of the most recent ATLAS results will be given on Standard Model measurements, the discovery of the Higgs boson, searches for supersymmetry and exotics and on heavy-ion results.Comment: 30 pages, 23 figures, Invited lectures in XII-th International School-Seminar The Actual Problems of Microworld Physics, 22 July - 2 August, 2013, Gomel, Belarus, to appear in the proceeding

Highlights from SUSY searches with ATLAS

Supersymmetry (SUSY) is one of the most relevant scenarios of new physics searched by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. In this writeup the principal search strategies employed by ATLAS are outlined and the most recent results for analyses targeting SUSY discovery are discussed. A wide range of signatures is covered motivated by various theoretical scenarios and topologies: strong production, third-generation fermions, long-lived particles and R-parity violation, among others. The results are based on up to ~5 fb-1 of data recorded during 2010-2011 at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV centre-of-mass energy by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, prepared for the 1st International Conference on New Frontiers in Physics (ICFP 2012), 10-16 Jun 2012, Kolymbari, Crete, Greece, submitted to EPJ Web of Conference

Dark matter: experimental and observational status

This brief review covers recent results on searches for dark matter in collider experiments, as well as from direct and indirect detection observatories. It focuses on generic searches for dark matter signatures at the LHC, e.g. mono-X, dijets, etc. Recently observed astrophysical signals that may provide hints of dark matter are also discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; invited talk in 15th Marcel Grossmann Meeting on Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics, and Relativistic Field Theories (MG15); to appear in a World Scientific e-book; matches version submitted to MG15 with updated references and minor text change

Constraints on Dissipative Non-Equilibrium Dark Energy Models from Recent Supernova Data

Non-critical string cosmologies may be viewed as the analogue of off-equilibrium models arising within string theory as a result of a cosmically catastrophic event in the early Universe. Such models entail relaxing-to-zero dark energies provided by a rolling dilaton field at late times. We discuss fits of such non-critical models to high-redshift supernovae data, including the recent ones by HST and ESSENCE and compare the results with those of a conventional model with Cold Dark Matter and a cosmological constant and a model invoking super-horizon perturbations.Comment: 5 pages LaTeX, 1 EPS figure. Contributed to Lake Louise Winter Institute 2007: Fundamental Interactions, 19-24 Feb 2007, Lake Louise, Alberta, Canad

Shedding Light on Dark Matter at Colliders

Dark matter remains one of the most puzzling mysteries in Fundamental Physics of our times. Experiments at high-energy physics colliders are expected to shed light to its nature and determine its properties. This review focuses on recent searches for dark-matter signatures at the Large Hadron Collider, also discussing related prospects in future e+e- colliders.Comment: 33 pages, 31 figures, invited review article for the International Journal of Modern Physics A, references added, plots update

MoEDAL: Seeking magnetic monopoles and more at the LHC

The MoEDAL experiment (Monopole and Exotics Detector at the LHC) is designed to directly search for magnetic monopoles and other highly ionising stable or metastable particles arising in various theoretical scenarios beyond the Standard Model. Its physics goals --largely complementary to the multi-purpose LHC detectors ATLAS and CMS-- are accomplished by the deployment of plastic nuclear track detectors combined with trapping volumes for capturing charged highly ionising particles and TimePix pixel devices for monitoring. This paper focuses on the status of the detectors and the prospects for LHC Run II.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; Talk at 2015 European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics (EPS-HEP 2015), 22-29 July 2015, Vienna, Austria; partly based on arXiv:1411.765

The MoEDAL experiment at the LHC: status and results

The MoEDAL experiment at the LHC is optimised to detect highly ionising particles such as magnetic monopoles, dyons and (multiply) electrically charged stable massive particles predicted in a number of theoretical scenarios. MoEDAL, deployed in the LHCb cavern, combines passive nuclear track detectors with magnetic monopole trapping volumes (MMTs), while spallation-product backgrounds are being monitored with an array of MediPix pixel detectors. An introduction to the detector concept and its physics reach, complementary to that of the large general purpose LHC experiments ATLAS and CMS, will be given. Emphasis is given to the recent MoEDAL results at 13 TeV, where the null results from a search for magnetic monopoles in MMTs exposed in 2015 LHC collisions set the world-best limits on particles with magnetic charges more than 1.5 Dirac charge. The potential to search for heavy, long-lived supersymmetric electrically-charged particles is also discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures; invited plenary talk in 5th Symposium on Prospects in the Physics of Discrete Symmetries (DISCRETE 2016), 28 Nov - 3 Dec 2016, Warsaw, Poland; based on arXiv:1411.7651 and arXiv:1612.0701