Results of the search for subrelativistic, magnetic monopoles with IceCube

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a large Cherenkov detector integrated into 1 km3 of Antarctic ice. Besides the detection of highly energetic astrophysical neutrinos, the detector can be used for searching for signatures of exotic physics. One research topic that is presented here is the search for subrelativistic, magnetic monopoles as remnants of the GUT era shortly after the Big Bang. These monopoles can be detected by the Cherenkov light from gradual proton decays, which are catalyzed via the Rubakov-Callan effect along the trajectory of the monopole. In this talk results of the analysis of first data taken from May 2011 until May 2012 with a dedicated slow-particle trigger for DeepCore are presented. No monopole signal is observed and their flux can be constrained to a level of three orders of magnitude below the Parker bound. These results improve the current best experimental limits by more than one order of magnitude for a wide parameter space of velocity and catalysis cross section.