A new interpretation of an event attributed to a magnetic monopole

An alternate and a new interpretation is given for the event attributed to a magnetic monopole by Price and coworkers found in an emulsion plastic sandwich stack flown from Sioux City, Iowa, USA on 18 September 1973. The electron pick-up and stripping cross-sections of nuclei ofZ～70–80 andv～0.6–0.7c in Lexan polycarbonate are calculated using the formulae given by Nikolaev. It is shown that the corresponding mean free paths are of the order of thickness (～250µ) of Lexan plastic sheets used by them. In such a case asnapshot of these processes is believed to have been observed in plastic sheets. Monte-Carlo simulations of the event have been made for three values of charges at the top of the main Lexan stack, namelyZ=83, 78 and 70 respectively. The event is thus interpreted as a cosmic ray nucleus ofZ=70–83 andv=0.6–0.7c losing and capturing electrons (mainly the latter) as it passes through the stack. The probability of the occurrence of such an event is estimated by several methods.