13 July, 2009

Creating magnetic monopoles in table-top experiments

An interesting article appeared today among PRL Editor's suggestions: Ville Pietilä and Mikko Möttönen "Creation of Dirac Monopoles in Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensates". These guys theoretically describe how one may use a magnetic field to create a magnetic monopole in a Bose-Einstein condensed atomic gas. This paper was also highlighted in Physics, so there is nothing left for me to write about.

The only thing I wonder is what happens if one uses molecular Bose condensate, or a subcritical, but non-condensed quantum gas, and uses the laser field instead of the magnetic one? Or, even worse, uses an electric field to manipulate condensed polar molecules?

Also, a few months ago I came across a paper, where some graphene-based system was proposed to "simulate" a Dirac monopole. But, unfortunately, I cannot remember the link...

12 July, 2009

Links for 12.07.09

1) Ten Creative Re-Invention Of The Light Bulb

2) Scriblink - the online whiteboard. You can draw anything you wish and then send off a link. It is possible to discuss stuff by drawing on the same board in real time. You can also use TeX.