Seminarium "Teoria cząstek elementarnych i kosmologia"

Magnetic monopoles are intriguing hypothetical particles and inevitable predictions of theories of Grand Unification. They should be produced during phase transitions in the early universe, but mechanisms like the Schwinger effect in strong magnetic fields could also contribute to the monopole number density. I will show how we can infer additional bounds on the magnetic monopole flux from detecting intergalactic magnetic fields, and how even well-established limits, such as Parker bounds and limits from terrestrial experiments, strongly depend on the acceleration in cosmic magnetic fields. I will also discuss the implications of these bounds for minicharged monopoles and magnetic black holes as dark matter candidates. Finally, we apply our primordial bounds to monopoles produced by the primordial magnetic fields themselves through the Schwinger effect, deriving necessary conditions for the survival of the primordial fields.