Looking for monopoles

1994/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Fisika

Seventy-five meters long, twelve wide and nine tall is the giant “eye” that has been installed in the underground laboratory of Gran Sasso in Italy. The device is called “Macro” (Monopole, Astrophysics and Cosmic Ray Obserbatory) and will start working this summer. Although for ten years Macro can receive any charged particle, its main objective is to detect magnetic monopole, one of the most exotic particles to be found.

In our world there is no magnetic monopole. The magnet is always a dipole (with north and south poles), and if we do two parts, each piece will also have a magnet (i.e. with north and south poles).

Today it is about finding monopoles as superrastas particles. In fact, the monopole is a consequence of the theories that unite three of the four fundamental effects of physics: electromagnetic, violent nuclear and weak nuclear. On the other hand, the monopole would explain the quantification of the electric charge, that is, why electrons or protons, for example, have the same quantum or amount of the electric charge.

In 1983 the Californian researcher Blas Cabrera claimed to have detected a monopole in a special apparatus, so much has been said about this issue. Now monopole hunting has another importance. On the one hand, they have installed a large detector and on the other, many physicists (more than a hundred Italians and Americans) will participate in this project. The installation works of the apparatus began in 1989, but have not yet detected monopolies.