There is a physics equivalent of a unicorn somewhere out in the universe. The isolated tip of a magnet is like a beacon in the night, pointing the way to grand, unifying theories of absolutely everything.
Nobody has seen anything that looks like the magnetic monopole, the fabled beast of particle physics.
Physicists may be looking for them in the wrong places. A new analysis by an international team of researchers has narrowed down where to look by modeling magnetic monopole creation in the chaos of collisions high up in the atmosphere.
Their work uses the results of highly sensitive experiments already looking for signs of magnetic monopoles in the collisions of particles in powerful accelerators to detect the same clues raining down from above.
By modeling the production of magnetic monopoles in the debris of atoms blasted apart by high-speed Cosmic rays, the team could confidently put some hard limits on the amount of energy it would take to make one.
This is how science works, and we would love to make a thrilling announcement about the particle. It would be worth the wait.
Electric charges are horses if they are magnetic monopoles. They are hard-working, easy to find, and nobody would argue they don't exist.
Scottish mathematician James Clerk Maxwell modeled the movement of the electron's negative charge in the 19th century. The push and pull of a magnetic field can be seen from this.
The magnetic equivalent of a negative charge can be used to swap out features of this equation. A pole. These equations show how magnetic fields can cause electric currents.
It is possible that physics is built on the back of symmetries like this, but it is not possible to prove a magnetic monopole exists.
It wasn't until the dawn of quantum physics that the theorist Paul Dirac reconsidered this symmetry in a new light.
The fact charges are quantized is not proof of anything. Nothing has yet ruled out the existence of a magnetic monopole as quantum field theories have grown.
Physicists realized in the 1970s that a wave would behave like a magnetic monopole when quantum fields became indistinguishable at high enough energies.
If we catch one, we might have clues on the way physics might emerge from one unified, high-energy theory.
This search has come up empty-handed for most of the time. A single blip in a Stanford experiment briefly stirred debate, but without much replication, it has since been seen as just one of those things that happens in science.
Magnetic monopoles that would have been created in the early Universe were the focus of most searches. We can only guess what the models would look like because they are light on detail.
If magnetic monopoles can be created from relatively low energies, particle accelerators can punch one out of the darkness. Only when the accelerator is in operation.
Cosmic rays cause showers of fat, exotic particles to fall onto the surface, many at energies colliders can't yet reach.
We will need to be on the lookout if one of them spits out a plump magnetic monopole in the future. Experiments like the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole might be a good bet for spotting them if they have enough mass.
There are only a few corners of physics that a massive unicorn can hide in.
The research was published in a journal.
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