Making Monopoles with Waves

Magnetic monopoles are hypothesized particles that have a magnetic, rather than electric, charge. Despite a long history of nondetections, monopoles continue to be a topic of study because of their possible role in the unification of the fundamental forces. In new theoretical work, Tanmay Vachaspati from Arizona State University, Tempe, considered whether monopoles could be generated through the scattering of waves. The results suggest one might detect monopoles in collisions between high-intensity, circularly polarized light waves.