LAUSR

Abstract In 2010, the MoEDAL (MOnopole and Exotics Detector at the LHC) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was unanimously approved by European Centre for Nuclear Research’s Research Board to start data taking in 2015. MoEDAL is a pioneering experiment designed to search for highly ionising manifestations of new physics such as magnetic monopoles or massive (pseudo-)stable charged particles. Its groundbreaking physics programme defines a number of scenarios that yield potentially revolutionary insights into such foundational questions as: are there extra dimensions or new symmetries; does magnetic charge exist; what is the nature of dark matter; and, how did the Big Bang develop. MoEDAL’s purpose is to meet such far-reaching challenges at the frontier of the field. The innovative MoEDAL detector employs unconventional methodologies tuned to the prospect of discovery physics. 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 – analysed 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 for further study. MoEDAL’s radiation environment is monitored by a state-of-the-art real-time TimePix pixel detector array. A new MoEDAL sub-detector designed to extend MoEDAL reach to mini-charged, minimally ionising particles is under study.