New Paper: Magnetic Monopoles and Duality Symmetry Breaking in Maxwell's Electrodynam
Hello to all:
I wanted to let you know about my new paper just posted at
http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0508257, titled Magnetic Monopoles and Duality
Symmetry Breaking in Maxwell's Electrodynamics.
This paper summarizes the main direction of my research over these past
eight months.
The abstract is as follows:
It is shown how to break the symmetry of a Lagrangian with duality symmetry
between electric and magnetic monopoles, so that at low energy, electric
monopole interactions continue to be observed but magnetic monopole
interactions become very highly suppressed to the point of effectively
vanishing. The "zero-charge" problem of source-free electrodynamics is
solved by requiring invariance under continuous, local, duality
transformations, while local duality symmetry combined with local U(1)_EM
gauge symmetry leads naturally and surprisingly to an SU(2)_D duality gauge
group.
As regards this thread, I note the extremely accurate formula (no "mere coincidence" in my
view) that Hans has posted for the fine structure constant and the
appearance of 2pi and (pi/2)^2 as a key numeric drivers in this formula. In section 6, I call your attention particularly
to equation (6.7) which brings pi into the fine structure formula based on
phenomenological origins, and to the derivation leading to this including
the Dirac Quantization Condition expressed as (5.22) where both the 2pi and
the a^.5 (the electric charge) are apparent ingredients. Regarding the
(e^pi/2)^2 factor, pi/2 for the "complexion" angle I am using in this work
is what rotates between the electric and magnetic monopoles. And, with some
rejuggling of (5.22), one can clearly get pi^2 factors to show up there.
The exponentials do not yet have a clear phenomenological origin, but, since
running couplings a connect via a log relationship to probe energy u, that
is, ln u ~ a, so that u ~ e^a, one can conceivably get this exponential onto
phenomenological footing as well once a connection is made to probe
energies. The connection to probe energies, I will make the topic of a
follow up paper.
In other words, the complexion angle, which is central to this
paper, is a direct function of the fine structure constant a, but is an angle
of rotation which naturally introduces factors like 2pi and pi/2. I have a
strong suspicion that this might provide a basis for going beyond
"mathematical fitting" of the numbers (I am being careful not to use the
word "numerology" because of its negative connotations) to explain how Hans' Fine Structure Constant
mathematics can possibly be given a phenomenological origin.
I would be interested in any feedback, public or private, that you may wish
to provide.
Jay R. Yablon
_____________________________
Jay R. Yablon
Email:
jyablon@nycap.rr.com