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Bet you can't break a magnet in half! But these guys can
By TJ DIMACALI, GMA News
Any kid who's played with magnets knows that you can never break one in two: try it and you'll only end up with two smaller magnets, each with its own north and south poles.
But quantum physicist Paul Dirac theorised the existence of single-poled magnetic particles or "monopoles" over 80 years ago, in 1931. If found, these particles would help refine our understanding of how the universe works.
Monopoles have proven elusive—until now.
On January 29, a joint team of scientists from the US and Finland announced the first successful creation of magnetic monopoles in the laboratory.
Amherst College Physics Professor David S. Hall, Aalto University (Finland) Academy Research Fellow Mikko Möttönen, Amherst postdoctoral research associates Michael Ray and Saugat Kandel, and Finnish graduate student Emmi Ruokokski were able to observe and photograph monopoles within an artificially-created magnetic field:
"The existence of even a single Dirac magnetic monopole would have far-reaching physical consequences. Although analogues have been found (elsewhere), there has been no direct experimental observation (of one)," the authors said in their paper's abstract, published in the journal Nature.
The team's work paves the way for finding natural monopoles "in the wild."
“The creation of a synthetic magnetic monopole should provide us with unprecedented insight into aspects of the natural magnetic monopole—if indeed it exists,” Hall said in an Amherst press release. — GMA News
