Magnetic Monopoles
This monograph addresses the field theoretical aspects of magnetic monopoles. Written for graduate students as well as researchers, the author demonstrates the interplay between mathematics and physics. He delves into details as necessary a
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Yakov M. Shnir
Magnetic Monopoles
ABC
Dr. Yakov M. Shnir Institute of Physics Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg 26111 Oldenburg Germany E-mail: [email protected]
Library of Congress Control Number: 2005930438 ISBN-10 3-540-25277-0 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York ISBN-13 978-3-540-25277-1 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable for prosecution under the German Copyright Law. Springer is a part of Springer Science+Business Media springeronline.com c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005 Printed in The Netherlands The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Typesetting: by the authors and TechBooks using a Springer LATEX macro package Cover design: design & production GmbH, Heidelberg Printed on acid-free paper
SPIN: 11398127
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To Marina with love
Preface
“One would be surprised if Nature had made no use of it.” P.A.M. Dirac According to some dictionaries, one meaning of the notion of “beauty” is “symmetry”. Probably, beauty is not entirely “in the eye of the beholder”. It seems to be related to the symmetry of the object. From a physical viewpoint, this definition is very attractive: it allows us to describe a central concept of theoretical physics over the last two centuries as being a quest for higher symmetry of Nature. The more symmetric the theory, the more beautiful it looks. Unfortunately, our imperfect (at least at low-energy scale) world is full of nasty broken symmetries. This has impelled physicists to try to understand how this happens. In some cases, it is possible to reveal the mechanism of violation and how the symmetry may be recovered; then our picture of Nature becomes a bit more beautiful. One of the problems of the broken symmetry that we see is that, while there are electric charges in our world, their counterparts, magnetic monopoles, have not been found. Thus, in the absence of the monopoles, the symmetry between electric and magnetic quantities is lost. Can this symmetry be regained? In the history of theoretical physics, the hypothesis about the possible existence of a magnetic monopole has no analogy. There is no other purely theoretical construction that has managed not only to survive, without any experimental evidence, in the course of more than a century, but has also remained the focus
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