Re: Magnetic monopoles

[msantos@etse.urv.es]

> >        Since we're talking about magnetic monopoles (or I hope we
> > will!)...is it true that magnetic monopoles are predicted by General
> > Relativity?  My physics students asked me how that could be and I had to
> > plead ignorance.
No: Monopoles => quantization + e-B field +...=> QFT. Indeed, you'll
meet them in some SuperString theory.

> No. Magnetic monopoles do appear in some particle physics theorties,
> however, and there is room left for them in classical electrodynamics.
> It is obvious that they can be added to Maxwell's equations. Quantum

But just in a ficticious manner, isn't it?, i.e., you may describe
the B field configuration of a permanent magnetic bar by means of
two distributions of opposite charged magnetic charges (sorry)
placed at the end faces ortogonal to the B direction at the center,
in a way similar to a charged capacitor. However that's only
a math tool...B-flux through any closed surface must still be zero.!
 
msantos@etse.urv.es
>