Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Atomic physics

Polar exploration

Nature volume 505, pages 627–628 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Magnetic monopoles — particles carrying a single magnetic charge — have never been seen. Analogues of these entities have now been produced in an ultracold cloud of rubidium atoms. See Letter p.657

If you have ever broken a magnet in two, you will know that each of the new pieces has a 'north' and a 'south' pole — just like the original. Despite being allowed in theory, a north pole separated from its south to create an isolated magnetic monopole has not been found. On page 657 of this issue, Ray et al.1 report how they have created a 'Dirac monopole' by engineering an environment that mimics a monopole's magnetic field in a cloud of rubidium atoms. Using direct imaging, the authors observe a distinct signature of the Dirac monopole in this quantum system: a line of zero atomic density that pierces the cloud and terminates at the monopole. This 'Dirac string' is a defect that allows the system's quantum-mechanical phase to satisfy constraints imposed by the monopole's characteristic geometry and the wave-like nature of matter.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Magnetic differences.

References

  1. Ray, M. W., Ruokokoski, E., Kandel, S., Möttönen, M. & Hall, D. S. Nature 505, 657–660 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Dirac, P. A. M. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 133, 60–72 (1931).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Milton, K. A. Rep. Prog. Phys. 69, 1637–1711 (2006).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Pinfold, J. L. Radiat. Measure. 44, 834–839 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Adrián-Martínez, S. et al. Astropart. Phys. 35, 634–640 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Abbasi, R. et al. Phys. Rev. D 87, 022001 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Fetter, A. L. Rev. Mod. Phys. 81, 647–691 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Dalibard, J., Gerbier, F., Juzeliūnas, G. & Öhberg, P. Rev. Mod. Phys. 83, 1523–1543 (2011).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Bloch, I., Dalibard, J. & Nascimbène, S. Nature Phys. 8, 267–276 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Möttönen, M., Pietilä, V. & Virtanen, S. M. M. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 250406 (2007).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Roncaglia, M., Rizzi, M. & Dalibard, J. Sci. Rep. 1, 43 (2011).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lindsay J. LeBlanc is in the Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1, Canada.,

    Lindsay J. LeBlanc

Authors
  1. Lindsay J. LeBlanc
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lindsay J. LeBlanc.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

LeBlanc, L. Polar exploration. Nature 505, 627–628 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/505627a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/505627a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing