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Bob D1
Lv 7
Bob D1 asked in Science & MathematicsPhysics · 8 years ago

If magnetic monopoles actually existed and could be isolated, would we be able to ...?

build a magnetic counter part to electronic circuits? If monopoles did exist, do you think it would be possible to use them to create a different type of communications and perhaps even transportation systems? I wonder what a monopole circuit would look like when compared to an electrical circuit.

Best regards

Update:

@ Rishabh & Primeali:

Maybe, but then maybe not. Think in terms of the subatomic nuclear strong force -- temperature, pressure, speed, proton-to-proton electromagnetic repulsion -- strong force synthesis. The magnetic monopoles, they may be the strong force or some component of it.

Update 2:

@ mornings ...

It is my understanding that GR predicts the existence of monopoles in abundance, and that it was the big bang inflation that drove them out into the far-reaches of the Universe. What if that hypothesis is wrong? What if monopoles survived the first 380,000 years post big bang period of recombination at the time of the formation of atoms? We know that prior to 380,000 years, it was way too hot for particles to come together to form atoms. We also know what heat and pressure does to a bar-magnet field. When the Universe finally did cool enough for the synthesis of atoms, maybe the strong force did to monopoles what it did to protons, over come there mutual electromagneitc repulsion and made them stick together to form atomic nuclei. If so, it might be conceivable that every atom has monopoles somehow hidden within its nucleus. I am only speculating, but maybe monopoles can somehow account for the short-range of the strong force or some other related characteristic.

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  • 8 years ago
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    Sure, if there were magnetic monopoles, we could accelerate them with a varying electric field, the same way electric monopoles (a.k.a. charges) are accelerated with varying magnetic fields. Maxwell's laws are completely symmetrical between the electric and magnetic parts, except for the conspicuous absence of magnetic monopoles.

    The trick to building a circuit would be to identify a material that "conducts" magnetic monopoles. Since we don't know what magnetic monopoles are, we don't know what that would be.

    "The magnetic monopoles, they may be the strong force or some component of it."

    Unlikely. The nature of a magnetic monopole is to interact with the electromagnetic force, by definition. Why should it have anything to do with the strong force? Of course, particles can interact with more than one force. Quarks interact with both the strong force and electromagnetic force. Since magnetic monopoles are unknown, they might or might not interact with any force besides electromagnetic - but why would we speculate that?

    "When the Universe finally did cool enough for the synthesis of atoms, maybe the strong force did to monopoles what it did to protons, over come there mutual electromagneitc repulsion and made them stick together to form atomic nuclei."

    A lot of things could have happened. What makes your story more likely than any other?

    "If so, it might be conceivable that every atom has monopoles somehow hidden within its nucleus."

    And yet, we've been smashing particles in accelerators for decades, finding out how their internal parts mix and match in different ways, yet we've never found anything that had a non-neutral magnetic charge.

    " I am only speculating, but maybe monopoles can somehow account for the short-range of the strong force or some other related characteristic."

    Now are you saying monopoles explain the strong force? Before you were saying the strong force explains what happened to monopoles.

    The short range to the strong force is entirely accounted for. It is ironically because it has an extremely unlimited range. As a result, non-color-neutral matter cannot exist beyond the smallest subatomic scales.

    I have no idea why you would suppose monopoles were connected to the short range of the strong force. If you had said monopoles account for the extremely long range of the strong force, it would have made equally much sense to me. Or if you had said monopoles were responsible for parity violation. Since monopoles are unknown, no one can say you're wrong, but that doesn't mean you're right.

  • 8 years ago

    I envy you, you're so current.

    I really need to learn how to use the internet better.

    The findings with regards to Dirac strings and in particular so called " spin ice " if proven to be more than just flipping poles, ( ultimately a true monopole should be a singe pole not one separated from its opposite by strings or anything else.) could in my view be very interesting in information transfer."spend some think time on that, it's more suited to you I think" not only in computers but could in my imagination, lead to electricity being transferred in the same way as radio waves.

    Now if they found monopoles at the LHC then we could be talking about repelling matter "anti gravity vehicles" etc.

    I wonder which addition/ adjustment to the BB theory they'd make before admitting defeat.

    Sorry, just had to get that in.

    Source(s): Thinkonit321
  • Anonymous
    8 years ago

    It Goes against the law of physics to isolate a Magnetic Pole.

    So its impossible to say what could or could not be achieved as a consequence.

  • 8 years ago

    If the impossible could be possible then, nothing would be impossible...

    Source(s): Just like that
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