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Binosi, D., Chang, L., Papavassiliou, J., & Roberts, C. D. (2015). Bridging a gap between continuum-QCD and ab initio predictions of hadron observables. Phys. Lett. B, 742, 183–188.
Abstract: Within contemporary hadron physics there are two common methods for determining the momentum-dependence of the interaction between quarks: the top-down approach, which works toward an ab initio computation of the interaction via direct analysis of the gauge-sector gap equations; and the bottom-up scheme, which aims to infer the interaction by fitting data within a well-defined truncation of those equations in the matter sector that are relevant to bound-state properties. We unite these two approaches by demonstrating that the renormalisation-group-invariant running-interaction predicted by contemporary analyses of QCD's gauge sector coincides with that required in order to describe ground-state hadron observables using a nonperturbative truncation of QCD's Dyson-Schwinger equations in the matter sector. This bridges a gap that had lain between nonperturbative continuum-QCD and the ab initioprediction of bound-state properties.
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MoEDAL Collaboration(Acharya, B. et al), Mitsou, V. A., Papavassiliou, J., Ruiz de Austri, R., Santra, A., Vento, V., et al. (2022). Search for magnetic monopoles produced via the Schwinger mechanism. Nature, 602(7895), 63–67.
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.
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MoEDAL Collaboration(Acharya, B. et al), Bernabeu, J., Mamuzic, J., Mitsou, V. A., Papavassiliou, J., Ruiz de Austri, R., et al. (2021). First Search for Dyons with the Full MoEDAL Trapping Detector in 13 TeV pp Collisions. Phys. Rev. Lett., 126(7), 071801–7pp.
Abstract: The MoEDAL trapping detector consists of approximately 800 kg of aluminum volumes. It was exposed during run 2 of the LHC program to 6.46 fb(-1) of 13 TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHCb interaction point. Evidence for dyons (particles with electric and magnetic charge) captured in the trapping detector was sought by passing the aluminum volumes comprising the detector through a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer. The presence of a trapped dyon would be signaled by a persistent current induced in the SQUID magnetometer. On the basis of a Drell-Yan production model, we exclude dyons with a magnetic charge ranging up to five Dirac charges (5g(D)) and an electric charge up to 200 times the fundamental electric charge for mass limits in the range 870-3120 GeV and also monopoles with magnetic charge up to and including 5g(D) with mass limits in the range 870-2040 GeV.
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MoEDAL Collaboration(Acharya, B. et al), Bernabeu, J., Mamuzic, J., Mitsou, V. A., Papavassiliou, J., Ruiz de Austri, R., et al. (2019). Magnetic Monopole Search with the Full MoEDAL Trapping Detector in 13 TeV pp Collisions Interpreted in Photon-Fusion and Drell-Yan Production. Phys. Rev. Lett., 123(2), 021802–7pp.
Abstract: MoEDAL is designed to identify new physics in the form of stable or pseudostable highly ionizing particles produced in high-energy Large Hadron Collider (LHC) collisions. Here we update our previous search for magnetic monopoles in Run 2 using the full trapping detector with almost four times more material and almost twice more integrated luminosity. For the first time at the LHC, the data were interpreted in terms of photon-fusion monopole direct production in addition to the Drell-Yan-like mechanism. The MoEDAL trapping detector, consisting of 794 kg of aluminum samples installed in the forward and lateral regions, was exposed to 4.0 fb(-1) of 13 TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHCb interaction point and analyzed by searching for induced persistent currents after passage through a superconducting magnetometer. Magnetic charges equal to or above the Dirac charge are excluded in all samples. Monopole spins 0, 1/2, and 1 are considered and both velocity-independent and-dependent couplings are assumed. This search provides the best current laboratory constraints for monopoles with magnetic charges ranging from two to five times the Dirac charge.
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Aguilar, A. C., Ferreira, M. N., & Papavassiliou, J. (2022). Exploring smoking-gun signals of the Schwinger mechanism in QCD. Phys. Rev. D, 105(1), 014030–26pp.
Abstract: In Quantum Chromodynamics, the Schwinger mechanism endows the gluons with an effective mass through the dynamical formation of massless bound-state poles that are longitudinally coupled. The presence of these poles affects profoundly the infrared properties of the interaction vertices, inducing crucial modifications to their fundamental Ward identities. Within this general framework, we present a detailed derivation of the non-Abelian Ward identity obeyed by the pole-free part of the three-gluon vertex in the softgluon limit, and determine the smoking-gun displacement that the onset of the Schwinger mechanism produces to the standard result. Quite importantly, the quantity that describes this distinctive feature coincides formally with the bound-state wave function that controls the massless pole formation. Consequently, this signal may be computed in two independent ways: by solving an approximate version of the pertinent BetheSalpeter integral equation, or by appropriately combining the elements that enter in the aforementioned Ward identity. For the implementation of both methods we employ two- and three-point correlation functions obtained from recent lattice simulations, and a partial derivative of the ghost-gluon kernel, which is computed from the corresponding Schwinger-Dyson equation. Our analysis reveals an excellent coincidence between the results obtained through either method, providing a highly nontrivial self-consistency check for the entire approach. When compared to the null hypothesis, where the Schwinger mechanism is assumed to be inactive, the statistical significance of the resulting signal is estimated to be 3 standard deviations.
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