Scientists capture first direct images of theoretically predicted magnetic monopoles
October 20, 2010 at 7:42 pm
REF: http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-10-scie...netic.html
Quote: (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have captured the first direct images of magnetic monopoles which were theoretically conceived by the British-Swiss physicist Dirac in the early 1930s who showed that their existence is consistent with the ultimate theory of matter – quantum theory.
According to the findings published in the leading scientific journal Nature Physics on 17 Oct 2010, the scientists were able to directly image the monopoles by using the highly intense x-ray radiation from the Swiss Light Source at the Paul Scherrer Institute.
“A magnetic monopole is a ‘hypothetical’ particle that is a magnet with only one single magnetic pole,” says UCD Theoretical Physicist, Professor Hans-Benjamin Braun from the UCD School of Physics, who co-led the study with Dr Laura Heyderman from the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland.
“Some of the most important theories explaining how quantum matter behaves in the universe are based on their existence, but they have eluded direct imaging since they were first theoretically conceived in the 1930s.”
“We have for the first time directly imaged emergent monopoles inside an artificially created magnetic nano-metamaterial consisting of tiny magnets with a size of a couple of hundred nanometers,” explains Professor Braun.
As Dirac predicted, the monopoles observed by the researchers come with `strings attached’ – the so called `Dirac strings’ which feed magnetic flux into the magnetic monopole in very much the same way a garden hose feeds water into a sprinkler.
The scientific team were able to capture the first direct images of the elusive monopoles together with their attached Dirac strings at room temperature.
