Post: #1

Big days in the world of Physics. Magnetic monopole artificially generated using Bose-Einstein Condensate. We can finally achieve symmetric Maxwell's equations.

http://phys.org/news/2014-01-physicists-...years.html

Post: #2

As exciting as the discovery of magnetic monopoles would be, this article, like so many others about science and theoretical physics in particular, is misleading hype. Synthetic magnetic monopoles, like the ones created by the authors, have been known to exist for 5 years or so in exotic condensed phases of matter like Bose-Einstein condensate, but unfortunately these are not the "natural" or "pure" magnetic monopoles that physicists have predicted and have been searching for for nearly a century. So no Nobel prize or symmetric Maxwell equations quite yet.

Post: #3

It is not as far away from exciting as you are making it seem. This particular Dirac monopole is the closest to a natural monopole that we have ever seen. If you can show me prior instances obviously I would be willing to look at them.

Ofcourse this is not a "natural" monopole.

The end point of the quantum terminating vortex formed in the electron wave always gives a magnetic monopole. This is a Dirac monopole. An electron I think might be the only naturally occuring place where we get a terminating vortex [?], and a magnetic monopole would be the other one.

They have used external magnetic fields to guide the spins of the atoms in the condensate. A B-E condensate essentially will behave as a single big atom, and by rotating the spins with external B fields, they have created this Dirac monopole. I have yet to read the paper in detail, so I will get back with a more technical analysis (though I will not be able to get all of it I think...).

The point is that this thing is physically possible, and obviously there is the chance that this can not be done outside a B-E condensate. But there is more hope. Also, remember that a B-E condensate is considered by some to be a 5th state of matter, after plasma. In that case, perchance this is the only state in which these monopoles existed in the post big bang primordial soup. The main interest in magnetic monopoles is that they would have been abundant in that time. But a single monopole also has an incredible amount of energy, so it would make sense that there are really not many around today.