Divide a charge into smaller units and you will reach a level where we can divide no further. This value is well memorized to us viz. 1.6 x 10^(-19) C, if you remember we got this value mullikan oil drop experiment. But the question, arises why this quantization of charge happens in the first place.
All those quantum experiments(observations) like photoelectric effect, blackbody radiation etc. proves quantization of energy, and not quantization of charge. It is also interesting to note that both protons and electrons are very different in their mass and its constituents(quarks), but they still have one thing in common i.e. charge and that too exactly same charge, exact till any decimal place. How can this be that two things made from different constituents have something in common to any level of accuracy (can you think of another such example; i can’t).
A theoretical solution to this problem was provided by Paul Dirac(a pioneer in quantum mechanics) in 1931 proposed that “we can explain the quantization of charge, if we be able to find even a single magnetic monopole anywhere”.
For electric charges, we can separate those positive charges from negative charges, but we can’t do the same for magnets. Break a magnet to any degree and we will always get a north pole and south pole as “a pair”. Magnetic monopole is a concept in which we get a behavior similar to that of a separated pole.
The scientists are really crazy to find these for one another reason too, these magnetic monopoles are also part of their dream to unify all fundamental forces in a single theory. Since then all kinds of experiments running for even decades are being performed to just detect that one monopole. It is being searched in ocean deposits, hadron collider, crystals, Bose Einstein condensate, deep space and where not !
But something unexpected on the day of 14 February of 1982 happened when no one was watching …
On 14th February of 1982, it seemed that the patience of Blas Cabrera finally paid off. In 1981, he set up an experiment consisting of coils to detect magnetic monopoles. Just as a moving magnet induces an electric current, magnetic monopoles would also induce electric current in coils, and that also in only one direction.
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| 1982 experimental results of an experiment designed to search for Magnetic Monopoles. |
On that day of Valentine, when no one was in the office, his instrument recorded one and only one signal corresponding exactly to that expected from a monopole. But after that even after 3 years of quest, there was no other signal for that. Many other scientists also repeated experiment for decades with much sensitive detectors, but no luck.
So, what does this mean ! Did that day, that very rare monopole did pass from that loop or it was just an error. Even if it was an error, no one knows the reason for the very exact error that it resembles exactly the “monopole theory”.
Anyway, one thing is sure, no one is going to accept any scientific argument by a single measurement, and increasingly impossible in quantum mechanics. Still such things become motivation for others to try out and enjoy science.
References:
https://www.nature.com/articles/429010a
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2021/09/03/ask-ethan-what-impact-could-magnetic-monopoles-have-on-the-universe
https://phys.org/news/2016-08-mysterious-magnetic-monopole.html
https://home.cern/news/news/physics/quest-curious-magnetic-monopole-continues
https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/69/10/40/415321/The-search-for-magnetic-monopolesThe-discovery-of
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