finding magnetic monopoles

[AntonioLao]

Analogous to finding gravitons, Higgs bosons, solitons, instantons, and right-handed neutrinos; finding magnetic monopoles is a lost cause of high energy particle physics. However, the persistence of both theoretical and experimental physicists disguise a potentially powerful blessing for any monumental discovery in science if and only if a conservation law can be found that explains why magnetic monopoles should not exist. This conservation law is no other than the conservation law of space-time charges.

The idea of magnetic monopoles (net isolated northpoles or southpoles) was first conceived by P. A. M. Dirac in 1931 described in the Proc. Roy. Soc., A133, 60. Two brief mathematical discussions are (1) Michio Kaku, Quantum Field Theory: A Modern Introduction, Chapter 16, Oxford University Press, 1993 and (2) J. J. Sakurai, Modern Quantum Mechanics, p140-43. A non-mathematical exposition can be found in Gerard’t Hooft, In search of the ultimate building blocks, Chapter 14, Cambridge University Press, 1997. Others are Roger Penrose, The Road to Reality, 2004; Heinz R. Pagels, Perfect Symmetry, 1985; Kenneth W. Ford, Elementary particles, 1963. The general consensus is that there are two kinds of monopoles: Dirac monopoles and Hooft-Polyakov monopoles. The first is dependent on the concept of Dirac string, while the second is dependent on topological solitons. Dirac string is described as an infinitely extended magnet of zero thickness, while a Hooft-Polyakov solitons is best described as a twisted lump of bound field energy with two distinct non-equivalent topologies: the vacuum uniformly directed topology and the “hedgehog” radially directed topology. At extremely small distances, these become the GUT (grand unified theory) monopoles. However, at even smaller distances of the order of Planck length, the GUT monopoles become space-time charges of either H-pluses or H-minuses. Since both matter and energy must be composed of multiple numbers of H-pluses or H-minuses, it would take infinite amount of energy to isolate a single Planck monopole of space-time charges. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole

[AntonioLao]

At the 50th anniversary of magnetic monopole in 1980, Dirac indicated that magnetic monopole does not exist. see
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/physics/pdf/0101/0101014v1.pdf