Abstract
The most stringent astrophysical limit on the flux of superheavy magnetic monopoles is based on the energy released when monopoles captured by a neutron star catalyse nucleon decay within the neutron star, and is: FG≲10−22 cm−2 sr−1 s−1. This, and other astrophysical bounds, are bounds on the average flux of monopoles in the Galaxy, not on the local flux of monopoles. Dimopoulos et al.1 have pointed out that the local flux could be many orders-of-magnitude larger than the average flux. Monopoles moving more slowly than about 3×10−5 c (1016 GeV m−1) are stopped in the Earth. Inside the Earth they catalyse nucleon decay, resulting in the release of heat. A bound on the local flux of monopoles moving more slowly than 3 × 10−5 c (1016 GeV m−1), F⊕≲10−21 cm−2sr−1 s−1, is derived here by requiring the energy released to be less than the measured heat flow at the surface of the Earth. Similar arguments are used to derive a bound on the flux of monopoles at Jupiter moving more slowly than 10−3c (1016 GeV m−1), FJ≲10−18 cm−2 sr−1 s−1.
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Turner, M. Monopole heat. Nature 302, 804–806 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/302804a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/302804a0
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