Magnetic Monopoles: Explained and Implications

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    Magnetic Monopole
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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on the concept of magnetic monopoles, their existence, implications in physics, and their relationship to electric charges. Participants explore theoretical aspects, historical context, and various models related to magnetic monopoles.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants note that while symmetries in classical electromagnetism suggest the existence of magnetic monopoles, practical evidence for them is lacking.
  • One participant questions the definition of a monopole, suggesting it might be akin to a dipole without ends.
  • Another participant argues that magnetic fields arise from moving electric charges and thus sees no necessity for magnetic monopoles.
  • There is mention of Dirac's monopole and Kaluza-Klein monopole, with a participant expressing a belief that some form of magnetic monopole must exist to achieve symmetry in Maxwell's equations.
  • A later reply introduces the t'Hooft-Polyakov monopole, describing its characteristics and its connection to quark confinement in the dual superconductor model.
  • Some participants discuss the duality between electric and magnetic phenomena, suggesting that dismissing magnetic monopoles based on their transformability into electric fields overlooks the fundamental duality of these concepts.
  • Questions arise regarding the properties of monopoles, such as their spin and rest mass, with some suggesting they are fermions analogous to electric charges.
  • One participant provides a link to additional research on magnetic monopoles from 2003.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of views on the existence and implications of magnetic monopoles, with no consensus reached. Some argue for their existence based on theoretical symmetry, while others challenge the necessity of monopoles in explaining magnetic phenomena.

Contextual Notes

Discussions include various models and theories related to magnetic monopoles, but there are unresolved questions regarding their properties and implications in physics. The conversation reflects differing interpretations of electromagnetic theory and the role of symmetry.

woodysooner
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Briefly in our Eng PHYSII class in the text of Halliday and Resnik it talked about physicists looking for magnetic monoploles, can someone explain this and the implications of it.
 
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I don't think people are looking for this anymore. Some symetries in classical EM equations would make you predict they exist, in parallele to electric charges (you could quite easily adapt the theory for it). But in the end, a magnetic field can only exist when these electric charges move, and it is created as a dipole.
 
what is a monopole though. just a dipole that have no ends lol not sure what it means.
 
woodysooner said:
Briefly in our Eng PHYSII class in the text of Halliday and Resnik it talked about physicists looking for magnetic monoploles, can someone explain this and the implications of it.

The fact is that no magnetic monopoles have been ever found (like a point particle being the source of a magnetic field). If there were any magnetic monopole it would explain why is charge quantized.

More info:
http://budoe.bu.edu/~corth/monopole_faq.html
 
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perfect, where the charge comes from, that what i was looking for. thanx.
 
The magnetic phenomena, with respect to it's detailed origin and expression, is one of the most least understood aspects of physics.
It does not appear to be an "emmissive" energy or aspect as such, rather a "closed loop" requirement scenario always involving electrical charges. A true mystery.
 
Magnetic fields can be treated completely as relativistic corrections to the fields of moving electric charges. Hence there is no reason to assume that magnetic charge (aka monopoles) exists.
 
I have certain knowledge about Dirac's monopole and Kaluza-Klein monopole, but not about Wu-Yang monopole and 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole. What characteristics have the 2 last?

I believe that some form of magnetic monopole must exist. They are the missing piece in Maxwell equations to be perfectly symmetrical, and symmetry has proven to be something very important in science
 
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meteor said:
I have certain knowledge about Dirac's monopole and Kaluza-Klein monopole, but not about Wu-Yang monopole and 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole. What characteristics have the 2 last?

I believe that some form of magnetic monopole must exist. They are the missing piece in Maxwell equations to be perfectly symmetrical, and symmetry has proven to be something very important in science


The t'Hooft monopole comes from the dual superconductor model that tries to explain the quarkconfinement. It is formally defined as the point on a manifold where the abelian gauge is not valid. On this point the gauge fields have a singularity and their form (i mean their equation) looks just like the tensor-form of a Dirac string. This thing is an anti-symmetrival tensorfield that represents a magnetic monopole of certain magnetic charge.

regards
marlon
 
  • #10
zefram_c said:
Magnetic fields can be treated completely as relativistic corrections to the fields of moving electric charges. Hence there is no reason to assume that magnetic charge (aka monopoles) exists.


You are abusing the work of Einstein when you state this !

You are obviously missing the point here. It is a fact that magnetic fields can be transformed into electric fields when performing a Lorentz boost.

But this means that magnetic as wel as electric fenomena are DUAL. You are able to interchange the two at any point. They are two "different" things used to describe one exact same thing. This is the duality. When you say that magnetic poles are redundant because the can be transformed into electric fields, you may as well say that all electric fenomena are redundant because they can be transformed into magnetic fenomena by using the DUALITY

regards
marlon
 
  • #11
Are monopoles spin 1/2 particles like electric charges?
Do monopoles have rest mass?
 
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  • #13
kurious said:
Are monopoles spin 1/2 particles like electric charges?

yes, them monopoles are the dual particles to electric charges. They are fermions of certain magnetic charge...
 
  • #14
magnetic monopoles circle around the colour electromagnetic field and thus form fluxtubes along which we will get a linear potential between two static quarks. This is a very nice result in order to explain the quarkconfinement based upon the dual abelian higgs model.

regards
marlon
 

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