SEARCH FOR A DIRAC MAGNETIC MONOPOLE IN HIGH-ENERGY NUCLEUS-NUCLEUS COLLISIONS

A new technique based on barium phosphate glass detectors was used in searching for Dirac pointlike magnetic monopoles with n greater than o r equal to 2 in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. No candidates were found in 1.05 x 10(9) and 3.08 x 10(10) interactions of 11A GeV A u nuclei and 1.46 x 10(10) interactions of 160A GeV Pb nuclei with Pb targets. The upper limits, on order of nb, on the production cross sec tions for Dirac magnetic monopoles and other hypothetical highly ioniz ing objects are well below those predicted via the Drell-Yan mechanism . [S0031-9007(97)04267-1].