Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Research Tools and Instruments

The MoEDAL (Monopole and Exotics Detector at the LHC) is the 1st of a series of "dedicated experiments" planned for the LHC and designed to search for the highly ionizing avatars of new physics in a complementary way to the main LHC detectors, ATLAS and CMS. The MoEDAL experiment, led by the MoEDAL-Alberta group, is carried out by a collaboration of 70 physicists from around the world. It is partially supported by an NSERC Discovery grant. MoEDAL started to take data in 2015 and has since then has established the world's most stringent limits on multiply charged magnetic monopole production. MoEDAL was also the world's 1st experiment to put limits on the direct production of spin-1 monopoles and the first LHC experiment to place limits on monopole production via photon fusion as well as the Drell-Yan (DY) process. MoEDAL papers reporting the world's best direct limits on Dyons, highly charged monopoles, and, on multiply electrically charged particles, are in the process of being submitted. The largely passive MoEDAL detector, deployed at Point 8 on the LHC ring, has a dual nature. First, it acts like a giant camera, comprised of nuclear track detectors - analyzed offline by ultra fast scanning microscopes - sensitive only to new physics. Second, it is uniquely able to trap the particle messengers of physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) for further study. The radiation environment is monitored by a real-time TimePix pixel detector array. In order to push to higher energy (14 TeV) and luminosity (30 fb-1) the MoEDAL Collaboration will be taking data at LHC's RUN-3 (2021-2023). As part of this program the MoEDAL detector will be updated with the addition of a new subdetector called MAPP (MoEDAL Apparatus for Penetrating Particles). MAPP's purpose is to expand the physics reach of MoEDAL to include the search for: mini-charged particles (mCP) with charges as low as 0.001 the electron charge (e). and, weakly interacting very long-lived neutral particle messengers of new physics. Only the dedicated experiments, MOEDAL-MAPP and FASER, with complementary physics programs, will take data during LHC's upcoming RUN-3. The MoEDAL-Alberta group has the responsibility to design MAPP and also to construct the central MAPP mCP subdetector (MAPP-mCP). MAPP-mCP consists of two collinear sections with cross-sectional area 1.0 m2. Each section is comprised of 100 (10cm x 10cm) lengths comprised of 2 x 75 cm scintillator bars. Each bar is readout by a fast, low noise PMT that readout by specialized fast electronics, with a ToF resolution of 500 ps. Thus, each though-going particle will encounter 3m (4 bars) of scintillator, readout by 4 PMTs in coincidence. MAPP is protected from cosmic rays and SM particles from IP8, by: 100m rock overburden; at least 25 m of intervening rock; and, an active veto system. The MAPP mCP detector will greatly extend the ATLAS and CMS sensitivity to fractional charge which currently lies at only ~1/3e.