To be or not to be? Magnetic monopoles in non-abelian gauge theories

TL;DR

This paper reviews the theoretical role of magnetic monopoles in non-abelian gauge theories, highlighting their intriguing physics and the lack of experimental evidence despite strong theoretical motivations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of magnetic monopoles in non-abelian gauge theories, emphasizing their theoretical significance and the ongoing experimental challenges.

Findings

Magnetic monopoles are central to many theoretical physics concepts.

No experimental detection of monopoles has occurred despite strong theoretical predictions.

The paper consolidates key literature on monopoles in non-abelian gauge theories.

Abstract

Magnetic monopoles form an inspiring chapter of theoretical physics, covering a variety of surprising subjects. We review their role in non-abelian gauge theories. An expose of quite exquisite physics derived from a hypothetical particle species, because the fact remains that in spite of ever more tempting arguments from theory, monopoles have never reared their head in experiment. For many relevant particulars, references to the original literature are provided.