Monopoles at Future Neutrino Detectors

Abstract

We investigate the potential of future neutrino experiments, DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande, to probe magnetic monopoles via Callan-Rubakov (CR) processes. We consider both relativistic and non-relativistic monopoles and focus on two primary detection signatures: high-energy antiproton production and proton decay catalysis. For relativistic monopoles, our analysis of the CR process indicates antiproton production with energies near 900 GeV and we find that both experiments can provide limits on the fluxes an order of magnitude below the Parker bound (approximately $\Phi \lesssim 10^{-16}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}\mathrm{s}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$). For non-relativistic monopoles, we recast the experimental sensitivity to proton decay catalysis and obtain upper limits on the monopole flux of $\Phi \lesssim 2.3\times 10^{-23}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}\mathrm{s}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$ for Hyper-Kamiokande and $\Phi \lesssim 1.1\times 10^{-22}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}\mathrm{s}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$ for DUNE.

Comments: 21 pages, 5 figures; references added, typos corrected