Evidence of Magnetic Monopoles Found?

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Evidence of Magnetic Monopoles Found?

Posted by michael on Friday October 3, 2003 @07:06PM from the speculation dept.

TheMatt writes "As reported on PhysicsWeb and published in Science (subscription required), researchers at AIST and co-workers believe they have found evidence of magnetic monopoles. They observed an anomalous Hall effect in a ferromagnetic crystal that they say can only be explained via magnetic monopoles. To refresh your memory, magnetic monopoles are the magnetic analogue of electrons and other charged particles--a "north" or "south" pole only. Dirac in 1931 showed that the existence of a magnetic monopole naturally leads to the quantization of electric and magnetic charge. Thus, showing the existence of just one magnetic monopole would be quite profound for physics, but their mass (> 10^16 GeV) has made searches for them difficult."

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There's monopolies on everything else... by Black+Parrot · 2003-10-03 19:09 · Score: 3, Funny

...so why not magnets too?

--
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Well I feel dumb by NanoGator · 2003-10-03 20:22 · Score: 3, Funny

Many moons ago when Star Control II came out, one of the resources you could collect was 'Magnetic Monopoles'. I remember thinking I was all smart by drilling it into a friend of mine's head that it was impossible to have one of those.

Man I hope he doesn't find my email address.

--
"Derp de derp."
1. Re:Well I feel dumb by WolfWithoutAClause · 2003-10-03 23:34 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  I remember thinking I was all smart by drilling it into a friend of mine's head
  You trepanned your friend?
  that it was impossible to have one of those.
  Yeah you find it impossible to have friends, what a surprise.
  Man I hope he doesn't find my email address.
  Well I for one am giving it to him if he asks, and I'm mailing Cowboy Neal to get him to release full details on you, you psychopath. Mind you, after drilling into his brain like that, he probably doesn't even know what day it is.
  
  --
  -WolfWithoutAClause
  "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
I guess by Trikenstein · 2003-10-03 20:38 · Score: 3, Funny

We can look forward to visits from Pak Protectors soon.
1. Re:I guess by praedictus · 2003-10-04 00:51 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  And in 517 years we can finally build the engine of the new Yamato, before the earth gets blown up!
  
  --
  Watashi wa chikyubutsurigakusha desu.
burp! by orthogonal · 2003-10-03 22:47 · Score: 2, Funny

I detected this large supply of monopoles, but it turned out to be a Pak Protector's ship.

They I ate all these yams, and damn do I have a hangover.

--
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Re:Can "only" be explained? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-10-04 02:12 · Score: 1, Funny

Got me, but it worked for the "dark matter" guys the other day too. I smell something funny in my house. It's not anything I recognize. Must be space aliens.
Monopoles by Muhammar · 2003-10-04 10:02 · Score: 2, Funny

they should be investigated and stopped
from doimg their anti-competetive magnetic practices.

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I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
Re:Can "only" be explained? by You're+All+Wrong · 2003-10-04 11:28 · Score: 2, Funny

Exactly. That was the first thing that jumped out at me too.

Do you reckon there's cold fusion going on in those crystals instead, perhaps?

YAW.

--
Your head of state is a corrupt weasel, I hope you're happy.
Re:their mass; not in "real space"?? by OldFart58 · 2003-10-06 10:19 · Score: 2, Funny

For those who don't have access to the article, these guys are making measurements on the anomalous Hall effect in a strontium ruthenate crystal. As far as I can tell, they are claiming that the fact that the transverse magnetoresistance is nonmonotonic with temperature implies an anomaly in the Berry phase of the electrons, hence a singularity in the vector potential and a magnetic monopole.

Dude!

I just had a STNG/Jordy flashback moment there...

(whoa...)

OldFart 8-)