A sign of GUTs?

Well, well well... Magnetic monopoles have been detected recently and this result is nothing short of amazing.
What do you make of it?


agnetic monopoles are hypothetical particles proposed by physicists that carry a single magnetic pole, either a magnetic North pole or South pole. In the material world this is quite exceptional because magnetic particles are usually observed as dipoles, north and south combined. However there are several theories that predict the existence of monopoles. Among others, in 1931 the physicist Paul Dirac was led by his calculations to the conclusion that magnetic monopoles can exist at the end of tubes - called Dirac strings - that carry magnetic field. Until now they have remained undetected.


http://www.physorg.com/news171209923.html



The existence of magnetic monopoles has far-reaching implications for many research areas, including the laws of quantum mechanics, theories of elementary particles, and cosmology. Experimentally confirming the existence of monopoles would provide long-sought evidence for some ideas, and possibly open up the doors to other new ones.


http://www.physorg.com/news167995625.html

Originally posted by adam warlock
Well, well well... Magnetic monopoles have been detected recently and this result is nothing short of amazing.
What do you make of it?


agnetic monopoles are hypothetical particles proposed by physicists that carry a single magnetic pole, either a magnetic North pole or South pole. In the material world this is quite exceptional because magnetic ...[text shortened]... possibly open up the doors to other new ones.


http://www.physorg.com/news167995625.html

Of course this result has to be verified but if true, it certainly has implications for the next round of physics! I wonder if there will be a connection between that and superconductivity? Also if it will impact the search for room temp superconductors. It's funny, the monopoles as described have to have a string of some sort attached that makes the magnetic field a sort of bubble at the end with only one pole. Does that mean there is another monopole at the other end of the string where that one would be the opposite pole? Or can the string just exist independently and only a single mono at one end with nothing at the other end? Also, it seems to me these things are only 'monopole-like' constructs, interactions in BEC's that simulates a mono like they have shown certain moving fluid analogies to black holes.

I also wonder if they ever get them to manifest at room temperature, if it would set off a round of more sensitive magnetic sensors and maybe read heads for HD's.

Very interesting, I'm going to look up those articles. By the way, the guys from the second article are former colleagues of mine at HUT.

Originally posted by sonhouse
Of course this result has to be verified but if true, it certainly has implications for the next round of physics! I wonder if there will be a connection between that and superconductivity? Also if it will impact the search for room temp superconductors. It's funny, the monopoles as described have to have a string of some sort attached that makes the magnet ...[text shortened]... it would set off a round of more sensitive magnetic sensors and maybe read heads for HD's.

This has a lot of implications and may be a vindication for things like GUTs, super string theories, and a few more fields.

"Does that mean there is another monopole at the other end of the string where that one would be the opposite pole? "
This what we get from the article:the strings are visible and have magnetic monopoles at their ends. . so we have two monopoles, one at each end of the string. Even though it isn't very explicit I'm guessing that these monopoles have symmetric magnetic charges (it feels so weird saying that).

Originally posted by KazetNagorra
Very interesting, I'm going to look up those articles. By the way, the guys from the second article are former colleagues of mine at HUT.

The second article is available for free in arxiv.

My strongest claim to fame is that I know the teacher that wrote João Magueijo's recomendation letter to the Imperial College.

Originally posted by adam warlock
The second article is available for free in arxiv.

My strongest claim to fame is that I know the teacher that wrote João Magueijo's recomendation letter to the Imperial College.

I have access to Nature, Science, PRL etc., but it's good that they have published it on the Los Alamos archive - this is customary at HUT anyway.