Scientists capture first direct images of theoretically predicted magnetic monopoles - 19 views
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first direct images of
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Image representing 12 micrometer x 12 micrometer of artificial magnetic metamaterial where monopoles can be seen at each end of the Dirac strings, visible as dark lines. The dark regions correspond to magnetic islands where the magnetization is reversed. (Image courtesy of Paul Scherrer Institute)
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“A magnetic monopole is a ‘hypothetical’ particle that is a magnet with only one single magnetic pole,” says UCD Theoretical Physicist, Professor Hans-Benjamin Braun from the UCD School of Physics, who co-led the study with Dr Laura Heyderman from the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland.
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“Some of the most important theories explaining how quantum matter behaves in the universe are based on their existence, but they have eluded direct imaging since they were first theoretically conceived in the 1930s.”
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Initially conceived by the British-Swiss theoretical physicist Dirac in 1931, monopoles were proposed to occur as emergent quasiparticles in so called pyrochlore spin-ice systems by Castelnovo, Moessner and Sondhi in 2008.