Abstract: Electrically charged particles can be created by the decay of strong enough electric fields, a phenomenon known as the Schwinger mechanism(1). By electromagnetic duality, a sufficiently strong magnetic field would similarly produce magnetic monopoles, if they exist(2). Magnetic monopoles are hypothetical fundamental particles that are predicted by several theories beyond the standard model(3-7) but have never been experimentally detected. Searching for the existence of magnetic monopoles via the Schwinger mechanism has not yet been attempted, but it is advantageous, owing to the possibility of calculating its rate through semi-classical techniques without perturbation theory, as well as that the production of the magnetic monopoles should be enhanced by their finite size(8,9) and strong coupling to photons(2,10). Here we present a search for magnetic monopole production by the Schwinger mechanism in Pb-Pb heavy ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, producing the strongest known magnetic fields in the current Universe(11). It was conducted by the MoEDAL experiment, whose trapping detectors were exposed to 0.235 per nanobarn, or approximately 1.8 x 10(9), of Pb-Pb collisions with 5.02-teraelectronvolt center-of-mass energy per collision in November 2018. A superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer scanned the trapping detectors of MoEDAL for the presence of magnetic charge, which would induce a persistent current in the SQUID. Magnetic monopoles with integer Dirac charges of 1, 2 and 3 and masses up to 75 gigaelectronvolts per speed of light squared were excluded by the analysis at the 95% confidence level. This provides a lower mass limit for finite-size magnetic monopoles from a collider search and greatly extends previous mass bounds.

Abstract: A combination of the searches for pair-produced vectorlike partners of the top and bottom quarks in various decay channels (T -> Zt/Wb/Ht, B -> Zb/Wt/Hb) is performed using 36.1 fb(-1) of pp collision data at root s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed data are found to be in good agreement with the standard model background prediction in all individual searches. Therefore, combined 95% confidence-level upper limits are set on the production cross section for a range of vectorlike quark scenarios, significantly improving upon the reach of the individual searches. Model-independent limits are set assuming the vectorlike quarks decay to standard model particles. A singlet T is excluded for masses below 1.31 TeV and a singlet B is excluded for masses below 1.22 TeV. Assuming a weak isospin (T, B) doublet and vertical bar V-Tb vertical bar << vertical bar V-tB vertical bar, T and B masses below 1.37 TeV are excluded.

Abstract: Dark matter particles, if sufficiently light, may be produced in decays of the Higgs boson. This Letter presents a statistical combination of searches for H -> invisible decays where H is produced according to the standard model via vector boson fusion, Z(ll)H, and W/Z(had)H, all performed with the ATLAS detector using 36.1 fb(-1) of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV at the LHC. In combination with the results at root s = 7 and 8 TeV, an exclusion limit on the H -> invisible branching ratio of 0.26(0.17(-0.05)(+0.07)) at 95% confidence level is observed (expected).