Experimental Limits on the Production of Fractionally Charged Particles in Proton-Nucleus and Neutrino-Nucleus Collisions

A search for fractionally chargedQ=1/3 (2/3) particles of different properties of interaction produced in (anti)neutrino-nucleus and in protonnucleus collisions was performed using the scintillator system of the CHARM neutrino detector at the CERN SPS. No events of the cases considered were found. In (anti)neutrino beams production was found to be less than a few times 10−5 per interaction of a beam particle. In a proton beam an upper limit on the production cross section of ∼10−40 cm2 was obtained.