Physics Breakthrough
| With a discovery that may lead to entirely new materials, such as superconductors, researchers have been able to create a synthetic magnetic monopole. The breakthrough, which confirms initial work by Dirac almost 100 years ago, may be as important as the discovery of the electron, according to the scientists. |
Nearly 85 years after pioneering theoretical physicist Paul Dirac predicted the possibility of their existence, an international collaboration has created, identified and photographed synthetic magnetic monopoles in a laboratory at Amherst College. The breakthrough accomplishment paves the way for the detection of the particles in nature, which would be a revolutionary development comparable to the discovery of the electron.
A paper about this work co-authored by Amherst College Physics Professor David S. Hall, Aalto University Academy Research Fellow Mikko Möttönen, postdoctoral research associate Michael Ray, Saugat Kandel and Finnish graduate student Emmi Ruokokski was published in the journal Nature.
“The creation of a synthetic magnetic monopole should provide us with unprecedented insight into aspects of the natural magnetic monopole—if indeed it exists,” said Hall, explaining the implications of his work.
Ray, the paper’s lead author and first to sight the monopoles in the laboratory, agreed, noting: “This is an incredible discovery. To be able to confirm the work of one of the most famous physicists is probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I am proud and honored to have been part of this great collaborative effort.”
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| Artist impression of the synthetic magnetic monopole Image Source - Heikka Valja |
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Hall’s team adopted an innovative approach to investigating Dirac’s theory, creating and identifying synthetic magnetic monopoles in an artificial magnetic field generated by a Bose-Einstein condensate, an extremely cold atomic gas tens of billionths of a degree warmer than absolute zero. The team relied upon theoretical work published by Möttönen and his student Ville Pietilä that suggested a particular sequence of changing external magnetic fields could lead to the creation of the synthetic monopole. Their experiments subsequently took place in the atomic refrigerator built by Hall and his students in his basement laboratory in the Merrill Science Center.
After resolving many technical challenges, the team was rewarded with photographs that confirmed the monopoles’ presence at the ends of tiny quantum whirlpools within the ultracold gas. The result proves experimentally that Dirac’s envisioned structures do exist in nature, explained Hall, even if the naturally occurring magnetic monopoles remain at large.
Finally seeing the synthetic monopole, said Hall, was one of the most exciting moments in his career. “It’s not every day that you get to poke and prod the analog of an elusive fundamental particle under highly controlled conditions in the lab.” He added that creation of synthetic electric and magnetic fields is a new and rapidly expanding branch of physics that may lead to the development and understanding of entirely new materials, such as higher-temperature superconductors for the lossless transmission of electricity.
He also said that the team’s discovery of the synthetic monopole provides a stronger foundation for current searches for magnetic monopoles that have even involved the famous Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. (Older theoretical models that described the post-Big Bang period predicted that they should be quite common, but a special model for the expansion of the universe that was later developed explained the extreme rarity of these particles.)
Added Aalto’s Möttönen: “Our achievement opens up amazing avenues for quantum research. In the future, we want to get even a more complete correspondence with the natural magnetic monopole.”
SOURCE Amherst College
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