Magnetic Monopoles: Explained and Implications

In summary, in our Eng PHYSII class, the discussion of magnetic monopoles from the text of Halliday and Resnik was briefly mentioned. Physicists have been searching for these elusive particles, which are essentially point particles that act as the source of a magnetic field. However, no magnetic monopoles have been found yet. If they were to be discovered, it would provide an explanation for the quantization of electric charge. The concept of magnetic monopoles is related to the symmetry of Maxwell's equations, and their existence is still a controversial topic in the scientific community. Some theories, such as the dual superconductor model, suggest that magnetic monopoles could explain the phenomenon of quark confinement. However, others argue
  • #1
woodysooner
174
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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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  • #2
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.
 
  • #3
what is a monopole though. just a dipole that have no ends lol not sure what it means.
 
  • #4
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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  • #5
perfect, where the charge comes from, that what i was looking for. thanx.
 
  • #6
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.
 
  • #7
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.
 
  • #8
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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  • #9
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
 

1. What are magnetic monopoles?

Magnetic monopoles are hypothetical particles that have a single magnetic pole, either north or south, unlike regular magnets which have both north and south poles.

2. How do magnetic monopoles work?

The exact mechanism of how magnetic monopoles work is still not fully understood, as they have not been observed in nature. However, theories suggest that they would interact with magnetic fields in a similar way to how electric charges interact with electric fields.

3. What are the implications of discovering magnetic monopoles?

If magnetic monopoles are found to exist, it would revolutionize our understanding of electromagnetism and potentially lead to advancements in technology such as more efficient energy generation and storage.

4. Can magnetic monopoles be created artificially?

Currently, there is no known method for creating magnetic monopoles artificially. However, some experiments have attempted to create them through particle collisions, but with no success so far.

5. Why have magnetic monopoles not been observed in nature?

One theory suggests that magnetic monopoles were present in the early universe, but due to cosmic inflation, they may have been stretched to such a large scale that they are now extremely rare and difficult to detect. Another theory proposes that they may have a very high mass, making them difficult to produce in particle accelerators.

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