They weren't supposed to exist. Scientists have (almost) discovered magnetic monopoles using diamonds

to Latest discovery Responsible is a research team led by physicists from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Although scientists have not yet seen the monopole itself, they have observed behavior in the patterns of magnetic fields passing through the hematite that could be characteristic of a magnetic monopole. This is an exciting discovery, because scientists have long acknowledged that finding and isolating such a particle would, in many respects, be like finding the missing piece of the puzzle: the reality around us.

Antiferromagnetic materials, such as hematite, a material similar to rust in many respects, are often used in the search for monopoles. Why? The way the small magnets are arranged in it gives it greater stability. The problem here is that the magnetic field they produce is very weak and therefore difficult to examine in detail.

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In order to overcome this obstacle, scientists used what is called diamond magnetism. This is a technique that uses a diamond needle and intelligent calculations of electron spin to measure the magnetic field in such a way that the magnetic field is not disturbed in any way.

Well, here comes the surprise. During the research, scientists discovered unusual distributions of magnetic charges that may indicate the presence of monopoles. In an attempt to describe the discovery descriptively, the researchers compared it to small discs that magnetically slide across the surface of hematite.

However, it is worth emphasizing again: we are not talking here about discovering or identifying an actual magnetic monopoly, but only the patterns of behavior that we would expect if such a monopoly existed. It can be said that it was possible to observe the effects of monopoly without observing the monopoly itself.

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The study's authors from the University of Cambridge admit that observing such behavior has been very difficult until now due to the weak magnetic field. Now, it turns out that the combination of hematite and diamond is the perfect choice. We were finally on the road to actual discovery. It is difficult to overstate how important the discovery of the magnetic pole monopoly was for physics. Scientists suggest that we will finally have a chance to create a mythological theory of everything that surrounds us.

What then? Scientists suspect that their research will soon be used to develop computational methods that will be faster and at the same time require less energy, making them more environmentally friendly. However, one thing is certain: diamond quantum magnetometry is the right way to search for monopoles, but also to precisely examine magnetic fields in 2D quantum materials.