(PhysOrg.com) -- An experiment led by a University of Alberta researcher, at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, could dramatically change our concepts of basic physics, revolutionize our understanding of the Universe and could eventually lead to technologies in future generations that right now only exist in science fiction.
U of A physics professor James Pinfold is leading an international team of physicists who will use ultra high energy proton collisions. The protons will move at very near the speed of light, in search for a hypothetical particle, called the magnetic monopole.
The magnetic monopole is a theoretical particle of matter. "Several important theories of physics are built on the belief that monopoles exist and it would be a great scientific coup to prove that," said Pinfold.
If successful, Pinfold says, physics textbooks from university level right down to high school will have to be revised.
"Our conventional understanding of magnets tells us they have a north pole and a south pole," said Pinfold. "A magnetic monopole has only one pole and that will change our understanding and the potential of electromagnetism," the force that binds particles of matter together. "Electromagnet force is the reason that, when I sit down on a chair, I don't fall through it."
Pinfold says the discovery of electronic monopoles will open up a whole new future for materials and technology if scientists can produce large numbers of them. "Monopoles could make materials strong enough to withstand a nuclear explosion and could also enable magnetic levitation."
Conventional understanding of magnets is that they must have north and south poles. In 1930 it was shown that a sub atomic particle with just a single magnetic pole could exist. Several modern theories of physics are built on the theoretical existence of magnetic monopoles.
Last year, researchers in France and Germany reported the observation of certain states of spin ice, a kind of crystalline material with essentially the same atomic arrangements as water ice that would create monopole-like particles. But Pinfold warns, "these 'quasi-monopoles' should not be confused with the real thing being sought by the U of A led collaboration at CERN."
The U of A-led experiment is already underway at the LHC and Pinfold says he hopes to find evidence of magnetic monopoles early in 2011. "It's quite an honour to be conducting this experiment," said Pinfold. "We can't wait till we get our hands on the data from the LHC."
At CERN, on the Swiss, French border, Pinfold's team will use the LHC, a particle accelerator 27 kilometres in circumference, to search for magnetic monopoles in the shrapnel like debris produced by colliding protons. The proton collisions will create unprecedented energy, 14 TeV. The tiny fireballs created in the impact will duplicate the energy produced just after the Big Bang, the event that created the universe.
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axemaster
To have a magnetic monopole, you'd have to have something spinning, but the top half would have to spin the other way. While still maintaining the same angular momentum. See how this doesn't make any sense?
kraisar
That aside, just because they work theoretically doesn't mean we will see them. Most data limit them to being no lighter than 600 GeV and in theory they could go all the way up to the Planck mass...so who knows!
Jarek
In such scenario uncharged matter would have no magnetic charge, while for charged one relatively much stronger electric charge would practically shadow magnetic one...
broglia
http://www.physor...423.html
broglia
The effects like Yukawa coupling, Higgs boson, magnetic monopoles, supersymmetry and parity violation are closely related each other - you cannot observe one effect without another ones. But the formal math gives no clear clue about it and theorists, who are working in different areas often doesn't collaborate mutually well from competitive reasons.
In general, mainstream physics isn't motivated in mutual reconciliation of theories, because it enables more theorists to ask for grants at the same moment. These reasons are subtle, but they lead into redundancy of research and increase of cost from long-term perspective.
Lordjavathe3rd
Slotin
http://hepwww.rl....vid.html
http://www-d0.fna...H04A.htm
chandram
kraisar
http://en.wikiped...echanism Has a pretty good introductory level explanation. To understand it more you will have to learn the math behind the Standard Model.
As for why magnetic monopoles could exist one has to stop thinking in terms of everyday objects like bar magnets or electromagnets. A magnetic monopole is just a bare charge of something we call magnetism, just like an electric monopole is just a bare charge of something we call electric.
gort
http://io9.com/53...d-holons
i thought magnetic field is due to movement of a charge such as the charge carrier, the electron.
if you could run beside a electron there would be no magnetic field, however if the electron went past you it would have a magnetic field.
magnetisn being a pseudo field of charge motion
Cyberadvan321
broglia
This symmetry breaking can be understood by model of quantum foam introduced by J.A.Wheeler into physics in 1962. This foam behaves like soap foam with very thin walls, which gets more dense under shaking in similar way, like soap foam. When the energy density is sufficient, the walls of foam aren't planparallel anymore, as the foam forms a spherical bubbles. The different curvature inside and outside of bubbles leads to symmetry breaking and formation of multiple event horizon near black holes in accordance to Kerr geometry.
broglia
broglia
IMO this asymmetry could lead to asymmetry of shape of rotating stars and planets, too. Most of planets aren't exactly spherical, they appear like pears with different curvature at both poles. Columbus already believed, the travel to China will be shorter along north hemisphere. The surface curvature is significant for so called gravitational brightening - the more curved surface is, the hotter is and the easier it emanates light. And the polar jets of black holes can be considered as an exaggerated case of gravitational brightening.
Skeptic_Heretic
All in all, it should be interesting to see what shakes out.
El_Nose
seneca
We can compare theorists to bugs climbing on the surface of fractal tree of human knowledge up to level, at which they cannot recognize, they're climbing to the same branch from different sides. This situation is quite common in contemporary physics and in certain cases the physicists are even trying to compensate/filter out effects, which they're supposed to find.
For example, string theorists are searching for extra-dimensions by looking for violation of gravity, while compensating electrostatic effects and Casimir force. Or some other physicists are looking for gravitational waves, while trying to filter-out CMB noise.
These examples are just demonstrating the need of understanding of contemporary physics at nonformal, intuitive level.
Xian
superhuman
Exactly. The search for magnetic monopoles is literally like a search for a stick with just one end - completely hopeless. The fundamental origins of magnetism guarantee that there are no monopoles.
Skeptic_Heretic
They're forbidden based on Maxwell's principles. I'd tend to agree with him. By the Guass equation, B cannot equal zero.
Jarek
Really?
So what about neutrinos?
They are the lightest particles and so probably the simplest - there is no place for a charge in them.
So maybe what is fundamental is just the spin which corresponds to internal magnetic structure of the particle ... or from quantummechanical point of view: that the phase makes something like that:
http://demonstrat...arities/
And here are naturally extended Maxwell's laws which allow for monopoloes:
http://en.wikiped...monopole
Skeptic_Heretic
Stop right there. The neutrino has no internal structure. Even if it did we couldn't examine it as it only interacts by exchange of heavy gague bosons.
Jarek
Abstract beings living outside the field, but somehow interacting with it?
Or maybe simpler - just a part of the field - some its special local solutions?
Like solitons already used to model mesons, baryons...
http://adsabs.har...73..173S
Anyway, even in perturbative QFT, they have some momentum structure - so after Fourier transform we should have some its spatial structure, don't we?
Skeptic_Heretic
Inertia doesn't require mass, contrary to what you've been taught in highschool.
Slotin
This occurs commonly in nature: transversal waves are dispersed into many longitudinal ones. Inside of black hole space-time is sufficiently compactified/large for such dispersion. After all, even common sunspots at the surface of sun are effectivelly a monopoles, too. Their second pole is connected beneath the surface, but it cannot be seen so easily.
baudrunner
However, a photon, even though it is a force carrier particle, can be considered to be a monopole, because it exists in time, meaning that for wave propogation to occur, you must have a bipolar cycle around a zero reference point, and if the two halves of the cycle were to supermipose, as in two waves generated 180 degrees out of phase, they would cancel, so at any given time, a single photon is monopolar, generating the dynamics of energy, and mass is energy, ergo - monopole.
Temple
That is not a rational argument. By that argument most of what physics understands can't exist, because at one point the laws of physics didn't allow for them.
If I had a dollar for every time that something was declared impossible, only to have the laws of physics to be amended and expanded...
MikPetter
D. Hsieh, Y. Xia, L. Wray, D. Qian, A. Pal, J. H. Dil, J. Osterwalder, F. Meier, G. Bihlmayer, C. L. Kane, Y. S. Hor, R. J. Cava and M. Z. Hasan, "Observation of Unconventional Quantum Spin Textures in Topological Insulators", Science 323, 919 (2009). [Primary P.I.: M. Zahid Hasan (Princeton University)]
baudrunner
A better comment could have been made by referencing the headline: "Magnetic monopole experiment at CERN could rewrite laws of physics".
This is in keeping with the theory of the photon background, which is the fundamental layer of reality out of which force particles mediate hadron interactions. As I've stated, the photon is the only viable monopolar manifestation currently observable.
seneca
In this way, the biased stance of Cern regarding LHC safety can serve as an example of symmetry violation and the repeated issuing of only biased reports about LHC project can serve as an social analogy of jet suppression, i.e. the formation of information monopoly, uhm, monopole. If we give Cern even more money, we can expect dijet suppression and the Cern will not communicate at all - it would become completely cryptic organization - something like military research base.
ace61