Two preprint papers from a large team of experimenters reveal their unsuccessful search for magnetic monopoles, the elusive north or south magnetic poles without partners. However, they express optimism as they make progress in narrowing down the potential locations for these elusive particles.

The preprints, which have not yet undergone peer review, also explored the possibility that we may have inadvertently created magnetic monopoles in the past and overlooked the equipment where they could have been detected.

We learn early on in physics that magnets consistently possess two opposing poles, commonly referred to as north and south. When a bar magnet is sliced in two, new poles will emerge near the break, ensuring that each smaller magnet retains one of each pole. With a magnet that is sufficiently brittle, this is something you can easily test on your own. While you’re at it, it might be worth considering the validity of more recent claims regarding magnets and questioning the reliability of the source.

However, the possibility of a single magnetic pole, also known as a monopole, existing apart from its counterpart has long intrigued scientists. Indeed, positive and negative electric charges can exist independently without requiring their opposites to be present.

James Clerk Maxwell, a pioneer in magnetic theory, believed he had successfully debunked the concept. However, many years later, Paul Dirac revived the idea by demonstrating that the existence of monopoles could provide an explanation for the quantization of electric charge. It is worth noting that if magnetic charge is quantized, it would consist of fundamental units known as the Dirac charge. The symbol for these units is 2/e, which is equal to 68.5 times the charge on an electron. Scientists in the field have become more and more convinced of this concept over time, yet researchers conducting experiments have yet to discover the evidence needed to support it.

Truly, the theory of monopoles has been extensively studied and has gained widespread acceptance among physicists, indicating their likely existence. In numerous circumstances that are significantly different from the ones that CERN is investigating, we have seen signs of these phenomena. However, the verification of subatomic magnetic monopoles continues to be an ongoing challenge.

Many theories regarding magnetic monopoles necessitate their adherence to laws of symmetry. As a result, it is necessary for there to be an equal number of north and south poles in the universe without the need for them to be attached like traditional magnetic poles.

Since 2012, the MoEDAL collaboration has been utilizing the particle annihilations at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to search for magnetic monopoles.

There are various ways in which scientists speculate that monopolies could potentially be created. In a recent study, scientists from MoEDAL investigated the detection of monopole production from virtual photons. It may seem far-fetched to those unfamiliar with the field, but in the realm of science, there is a concept that is crucial to our understanding of physics. This concept involves virtual photons, which serve as carriers of the electromagnetic force between two charged particles. However, it’s important to note that these virtual photons do not exist as independent particles.

Virtual photons can be generated through the collision of particles at high velocities, along with various other techniques. The creation of magnetic monopoles has two potential methods, according to theoretical physicists. One method involves the fusion of two virtual photons, while the other process, called the Drell-Yan process, can generate a monopole from a single virtual photon.

Contrary to expectations, the search for a magnetic monopole does not solely rely on its magnetic field. The charge that theoretical monopoles carry is quite significant. Discovering a High Electric Charge Object (HECO) would suggest the presence of physics beyond the standard model. Specifically, it could indicate the presence of hidden monopoles, along with other intriguing possibilities like remnants of microscopic black holes.

“The search reach of MoEDAL for both monopoles and HECOs enables the collaboration to extensively explore the theoretical ‘discovery space’ for these hypothetical particles,” stated MoEDAL spokesperson James Pinfold.

In the first preprint, the MoEDAL team presents their findings on the lower limits of the mass of a monopole, claiming that these limits are the most robust ones published so far. They assert that they have outperformed the larger ATLAS experiment, which utilized the LHC for the identical objective.

The second preprint discusses an alternative approach to searching for monopoles. It focuses on the monopoles generated through the Schwinger mechanism, which occurs when heavy ions are collided during the initial run of the LHC. According to the Schwinger mechanism, it is postulated that the presence of intense electric or magnetic fields has the potential to generate particles from a vacuum. “If monopoles are composite particles, this and our previous Schwinger-monopole search may have been the first-ever opportunities to observe them,” Pinfold said.

It was hypothesized that monopoles could have been generated during the experiment and subsequently become trapped and unnoticed in a section of the collider that had been taken out of service. No magnetic monopoles were discovered; however, the authors were able to deduce that the creation of a magnetic monopole requires a significant amount of energy. They confidently stated, with a 95 percent confidence level, that these magnetic monopoles must have masses exceeding 80 billion electron volts.

This comes as no surprise to most theoretical physicists. Understanding the role of magnetic monopoles is crucial in various endeavors to combine quantum mechanics and gravity in grand unified theories. These predictions often involve extremely high masses, on the scale of trillions of electron volts, and necessitate charges that are at least two or three times greater than the Dirac charge.

You can find both preprints on arXiv.org, here and here.

If there are extraterrestrial civilizations within a reasonable distance capable of detecting our unintentional transmissions, there exists a possibility, albeit small, that among the initial signals they intercept, they could receive the commencement of the 1936 Olympic Games. Therefore, in the unlikely event that they do receive these signals, we might come across a speech by Adolf Hitler during our first encounter with an alien species.

“Naturally, this was not the initial transmission,” clarified Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at SETI, during an interview with RealClearScience. “However, it was emitted at a sufficiently high frequency to penetrate the ionosphere.”

In the movie Contact, this ultimately became the initial communication that mankind received from an extraterrestrial society. The entities promptly returned the signal to Earth, unaware of the profound consequences that transmitting broadcasts of Adolf Hitler from outer space would have on the targeted species they were endeavoring to establish communication with. It is similar to greeting a random person and then unintentionally reciting a chapter from Mein Kampf.

Fortunately, it is highly likely that we won’t encounter this issue because extraterrestrial civilizations shouldn’t be able to distinguish the signal strengths.

“The power consumption would have been minimal, and the antenna used would not have had a specific direction,” Shostak elaborated. “The notion that extraterrestrial beings might intercept it is highly improbable.”

However, it is possible that we may receive significantly more alarming initial communications, as individuals have been deliberating on X (Twitter) and Reddit.

What would be the scariest message humanity could receive from outer space? pic.twitter.com/HKEzb7JBnI

— Curiosity (@MAstronomers) April 21, 2024

It appears that people are primarily focused on receiving warnings from extraterrestrial civilizations right now, possibly as a result of a recent unnamed television series.

What would be the scariest message humanity could receive from outer space?
byu/silly_vasily inAskReddit

"Be quite they will hear you!"

— Adam Taylor (@ATaylorFPGA) April 21, 2024

According to certain proposed resolutions to the Fermi Paradox, which ask why we haven’t detected any signs of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, the explanation is that these civilizations are intentionally concealing their presence due to the apprehension of their own annihilation.

Another concern is the possibility of receiving an unclear message that extraterrestrial beings will provide us with limited information, apart from the fact that they are en route.

What would be the scariest message humanity could receive from outer space? pic.twitter.com/HKEzb7JBnI

— Curiosity (@MAstronomers) April 21, 2024

What would be the scariest message humanity could receive from outer space?
byu/silly_vasily inAskReddit

One theory, called the Zoo Hypothesis, is related to this topic. The theory posits that extraterrestrial beings possess knowledge of our existence but deliberately confine us within a designated “zoo” to allow for our evolutionary and societal development. This parallels humanity’s practice of preserving certain areas as nature reserves and refraining from engaging with uncontacted tribes. Based on this hypothesis, it is possible that we may receive contact once we have reached a satisfactory level of technological and societal development and potentially be accepted into a community of other galaxies.

Although there is a prevailing apprehension that initiating communication with an extraterrestrial civilization will probably elicit fear due to humanity’s historical tendency to fear the unfamiliar, there is a potentially more alarming notion.

Movies and TV shows depict space stations as sterile and immaculate environments. However, wherever humans are present, they inevitably carry along with them a multitude of bacteria. Bacteria have colonized various habitats within the International Space Station (ISS), and due to their rapid evolutionary capacity, a particular species has been observed diverging from its terrestrial counterparts.

The bacteria in question are specific strains of Enterobacter bugandensis. This pathogen is classified as an opportunistic pathogen, which indicates that it can only cause disease in individuals who are already “perturbed” or experiencing a disruption in their health, such as those who are already battling another disease or have a weakened immune system. The bacteria is renowned for its multidrug resistance, rendering multiple antibiotic treatments ineffective in combating it. Therefore, it is crucial to comprehend the characteristics of this bacteria in space.

In 2018, researchers discovered five different variations of this bacterium on the International Space Station (ISS). Recent findings now indicate that there are a total of 13 distinct variations of this bacterium present on the space station. The first analysis showed some similarities, but the more in-depth genetic study suggests that the ISS strains may have gone through multiple mutations in response to the unique environmental stress, creating genetic and functional differences from E. bugandensis found on Earth.

The authors stated in the paper that they have identified specific genes that are only found in organisms associated with the ISS and not in their counterparts on Earth.

Gaining insight into the evolutionary processes of bacteria in space is crucial for safeguarding the well-being of astronauts and developing alternative strategies to combat these harmful microorganisms. With regards to these recently developed strains, their ability to adjust to microgravity could potentially conceal their vulnerabilities.

The authors further stated that these genes have the potential to be effective targets for therapeutic interventions against harmful microorganisms in the distinct environment of the IS.

The research team acknowledges certain constraints in the genetic analysis, preventing them from definitively attributing the characteristics of these strains solely to space. There is, however, a lot of strong evidence that these strains have become part of different bacterial communities, including those made up of opportunistic pathogens that are resistant to many drugs.

The coexistence of these organisms may have contributed to their ability to adapt and thrive in the challenging conditions of the ISS, characterized by low gravity, high radiation, and elevated levels of carbon dioxide.

The research is published in the scientific journal Microbiome.