Pair production of magnetic monopoles and stable high-electric-charge objects in proton-proton and heavy-ion collisions

We describe pair-production models of spin-0 and spin-1/2 magnetic monopoles and high-electric-charge objects (HECOs) in proton-proton (pp) and heavy-ion collisions, considering both the Drell-Yan (DY) and the photon-fusion processes. In particular, we extend the DY production model of spin-1/2 HECOs to include Z(0)-boson exchange for pp collisions. Furthermore, we explore spin-1/2 and, for the first time, spin-0 production in ultraperipheral heavy-ion collisions. With matrix element calculations and equivalent photon fluxes implemented in MadGraph5_aMC@NLO, we present leading-order production cross sections of these mechanisms in root S = 14 TeV pp collisions and root S-NN TeV ultraperipheral lead-lead collisions at the LHC. While the mass range accessible in ultraperipheral lead-lead collisions is much lower than that in pp collisions, we find that the theoretical production cross sections are significantly enhanced in the former for masses below 82 GeV.