Newly Discovered Magnetic Monopole Particles Flow Like Electric Currents

They're calling it "magnetricity" -- catchy, eh?

By Stuart Fox Posted 10.15.2009 at 12:50 pm 7 Comments

Dy2Ti2O7: This rare, "spin ice", crystal contains the atomic monopoles needed to create magnetricity. via Muon Science Laboratory

In 1931, physicist Paul Dirac hypothesized that on the quantum level, magnetic charge must exist in discrete packets, or quanta, in the same way that electric energy exists in a photon. This implies the existence of magnetic monopoles: particles that have a single magnetic charge, or polar identity -- north or south.

For 78 years, Dirac's speculation interested only hardcore theorists, because the conjecture failed to find any expression in observed phenomena. All magnets had two poles, one north and one south, inextricably attached to each other.

That all changed in September, when physicists discovered the identity-carrying particle Dirac predicted, as well as the one-poled magnets the particle creates. These magnets, called monopoles, exist only in special crystals called "spin ice," which can't form regular magnets due to the forces generated by the unique geometry in their crystal bonding structure.

Now, English scientists have discovered how to make magnetic poles flow through those crystals like an electric current, transforming parts of the crystals into monopoles in waves. This advance takes this field out of theory and into the real world of computer engineering.

In a regular computer, chips store information as an electric charge. Positive and negative charges represent the ones and zeroes of programming code.

This new discovery opens up the possibility that magnetic monopoles could be used for computer storage. If magnetic polar identity can flow through crystals of spin ice, then the current of identity could replace positive and negative charges with positive and negative monopoles as the information storage medium. And since controlling the magnetic identity of electrons underlies quantum computing, this ability to alter that identity with a current positions spin ice as the new, leading candidate for quantum computing chips.

And if you aren't excited about the future of quantum computing, you're probably reading the wrong website.

[via BBC News]

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7 Comments

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rlb2

10/15/09 at 8:56 pm

It's back to the basics. Magnetic Monopole computer storage is one thing but if Magnetic Monopoles do prove to exist then current understanding of Quantum theory and the science of Cosmology will be turned up-side down...

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Unintended

10/15/09 at 11:25 pm

Things are changing so fast its freaking me out. So many possibilities. When Im done with school in just a few years the world will be an even more amazing place. I so badly wish I was already part of the change. Its such a helpless feeling having to just sit here and wait.

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NekuSama

10/16/09 at 10:39 am

sounds great...

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rantbot

10/17/09 at 4:33 am

The last time magnetic monopoles were discovered I was still in school. That was about thirty years ago.

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quasi44

10/18/09 at 3:35 am

Hey! Unintended! As long as you're just sitting there waiting, think bout this while you read. Probably half, at least, of the advances in materials sciences and energy research come from students...they are often much more efficient when having to stick to their budget restraints, and their fresh viewpoints are often on the leading edge of industry inside of 5 years. While you must accept the constraints of co star on any patents filed for your inventions at a college, due to their facilities, equipment, collaboration, etc; there is a plus side. A college can get a patent or copyright registered easier than you or I could alone. And if you get one with your name anywhere on it at college, you can pretty much write your own ticket as to your employment after school. Good luck.

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manumathewv

10/27/09 at 2:59 pm

Amen, Quasi44

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mcalevy

10/28/09 at 2:39 pm

Tom Bearden and John Bedini have been using magnetic monopoles in their over unity devices for more than 20 years.

rlb2's comment above is quite perceptive.

Bedini has often said that his and Bearden's discoveries will never be adopted by current researchers. They are waiting for the old guard to die off, and the young open minded graduates to get with the new program. Looks like they were right.

It is a whole new game when one opens up their mind.