Creation of Dirac monopoles in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

TL;DR

This paper theoretically shows how to create Dirac monopoles in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates using magnetic fields, providing an analogue to fundamental magnetic monopoles with observable vortex structures.

Contribution

It introduces a method to imprint topological defects resembling Dirac monopoles in BECs, linking vortex filaments with magnetic monopole analogues.

Findings

Topological defects can be imprinted using external magnetic fields.

Vortex filaments correspond to Dirac strings in the condensate.

The vorticity mimics the magnetic field of a monopole.

Abstract

We demonstrate theoretically that using standard external magnetic fields, one can imprint point-like topological defects to the spin texture of a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate. Symmetries of the condensate order parameter render this topological defect to be accompanied with a vortex filament corresponding to the Dirac string of a magnetic monopole. The vorticity in the condensate coincides with the magnetic field of a magnetic monopole, providing an ideal analogue to the monopole studied by Dirac.