The MoEDAL experiment: a new light on the high-energy frontier

MoEDAL is a pioneering LHC experiment designed to search for anomalously ionizing messengers of new physics, such as the magnetic monopole. After a test run at 8 TeV centre-of-mass energy (E-cm), it started official data taking at the LHC at an E-cm of 13 TeV, in 2015. Its groundbreaking physics program defines a number of scenarios that yield potentially revolutionary insights into such foundational questions as: are there extra dimensions or new symmetries; what is the mechanism for the generation of mass; does magnetic charge exist; do topological particles exist; and what is the nature of dark matter? After a brief introduction, MoEDAL's progress to date will be reported, including its past, current and expected future physics output. Additionally, an upgrade to the MoEDAL detector consisting of two new subdetectors: MAPP (MoEDAL Apparatus for Penetrating Particles) now being prototyped at IP8; and MALL (MoEDAL Apparatus for very long-lived particles), will be presented. Finally, a possible astroparticle extension to MoEDAL, called Cosmic-MoEDAL, will be briefly described. This high altitude detector will allow the search for magnetic monopoles to be continued from the TeV scale to the GUT scale. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Topological avatars of new physics'.