Is Ball Lightning a Signal of Magnetic Monopoles?

TL;DR

This paper explores the hypothesis that ball lightning could be a manifestation of magnetic monopoles or related exotic particles, proposing new physics beyond the Standard Model to explain its properties.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that ball lightning may signal new physics, specifically involving magnetic monopoles or dyons, and suggests experimental search strategies without requiring new accelerators.

Findings

Ball lightning's properties align with scales of grand unified theories.

Monopole catalysis of baryon decay cannot explain ball lightning.

A high mass dyon model offers a natural explanation for observed phenomena.

Abstract

While ball lighting is known to exist from thousands of observations, its properties have never been explained by known physics. The combined order of magnitude of power, size, time scale, and characteristic behavior of ball lightning have defeated every model. The failure of standard physics does not hinge on fine details, but on the breadth of qualitative features of the phenomenon itself. We consider the possibility that ball lighting may be a signal of physics beyond the Standard Model. The mass and energy scale of ball lightning is remarkably consistent with new physics scales of grand unified theories. We analyze a suggestion that monopole catalysis of baryon decays in air might explain ball lightning. Nothing can be done to make it consistent, including saturating interaction cross sections with unitarity bounds. However a high mass dyon partially decaying by neutralization of deeply bound electromagnetic energy explains several puzzles naturally. The study suggests new ways to search for dyons and monopoles. The organizational skills of ambitious experimental physics groups could lead to productive searches beyond the Standard Model that do not need a new particle accelerator.