You may already know that strong magnets have two poles, north and south. If you were to break a magnet into two, though, you would have two double-poled magnets. Even if you continued splicing a magnet into smaller parts, they all would have a north and south pole, as every spinning electron has both. However, according to electromagnetic theory, there is one exception to this: the monopole. The monopole is different from a regular bar magnet because if you were to break it in half, you would have two isolated magnets with just one pole. Despite being one of the fundamental theories of physics, there had been no actual evidence of this phenomenon - until now. BBC News reported that a research team from the Aalto University in Finland and Amherst College in Massachusetts was able to produce a magnetic monopole. While their creation is synthetic, it suggests that the real thing may actually exist. This highly anticipated discovery provides hope that a range of physical phenomena might finally have an explanation.

An Exciting Development

In 1931, physicist Paul Dirac was the first to predict the existence of magnetic monopoles in a groundbreaking paper. Ever since he first theorized this matter, researchers have been eagerly searching to prove that it exists. More than 80 years later, scientists have finally succeeded in creating an artificial monopole in the quantum system. They can examined it in a controlled environment to better understand the particle's characteristics. The research team published their groundbreaking discoveries in the online journal Nature. According to BBC News, the team compared the detection of a natural magnetic monopole to the discovery of the electron. "This creation of a Dirac monopole is a beautiful demonstration of quantum simulation," said Lindsay LeBlanc, a University of Alberta physicist not involved in the study, according to the source. "Although these results offer only an analogy to a magnetic monopole, their compatibility with theory reinforces the expectation that this particle will be detected experimentally." Additionally, the 3D magnetic nanonetwork discovery could lead to a new generation of storage technologies.

A Complex Process

NPR explained that first, the researchers engineered a Bose-Einstein Condensate, which consists of a small cloud of rubidium atoms cooled to just a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero. To cool the atoms, physicists used lasers to shoot them into a cold gas to slow them down. Then, they reduced their momentum further by manipulating them using magnetic fields. Since atoms are nearly stationary at this temperature, researchers were able to view strange quantum effects. The atoms no longer acted as a typical solid, liquid or gas. After applying magnetic fields to the material, researchers produced vortexes that resemble a tornado in the fluid. After moving a point at the base of the vortex into the middle, the scientists noticed that the condensate started to produce a spiky outward monopole-style magnetic field that they refer to as the "hedgehog configuration." Through direct imaging, the team identified a Dirac string, which is a unique signature of Dirac monopole.

Interesting Implications

So why is this finding so significant? Business Insider noted that according to certain Big Bang theories, magnetic monopole particles would have formed in the first stages of the universe due to extremely high temperatures. Therefore, discovering a natural monopole may offer insight into the universe's early years and its conditions. While scientists have looked high and low, in lunar rocks, Antarctic ice and other natural matter, to find monopoles, these searches have thus far been fruitless. The creation of a synthetic monopole demonstrates that this phenomenon doesn't in fact violate the laws of physics. As a result, these findings indicate that a natural monopole might also be possible.

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