Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci. 2019 Dec 30;377(2161):20190333. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2019.0333. Epub 2019 Nov 11.
Quantum electrodynamics predicts that in a strong electric field, electron-positron pairs are produced by the Schwinger process, which can be interpreted as quantum tunnelling through the Coulomb potential barrier. If magnetic monopoles exist, monopole-antimonopole pairs would be similarly produced in strong magnetic fields by the electromagnetic dual of this process. The production rate can be computed using semiclassical techniques without relying on perturbation theory, and therefore it can be done reliably in spite of the monopoles' strong coupling to the electromagnetic field. This article explains this phenomenon and discusses the bounds on monopole masses arising from the strongest magnetic fields in the universe, which are in neutron stars known as magnetars and in heavy ion collision experiments such as lead-lead collisions carried out in November 2018 in the large Hadron collider at CERN. It will also discuss open theoretical questions affecting the calculation. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Topological avatars of new physics'.
量子电动力学预测，在强电场中，电子-正电子对通过 Schwinger 过程产生，这可以解释为通过库仑势垒的量子隧穿。如果磁单极子存在，那么在强磁场中，通过这个过程的电磁对偶，也会类似地产生单极子-反单极子对。可以使用半经典技术来计算产生率，而无需依赖微扰理论，因此即使单极子与电磁场的强耦合，也可以可靠地进行计算。本文解释了这种现象，并讨论了宇宙中最强磁场产生的磁单极子质量的限制，这些磁场存在于被称为磁星的中子星中，以及 2018 年 11 月在欧洲核子研究中心的大型强子对撞机中进行的铅-铅碰撞等重离子碰撞实验中。本文还将讨论影响计算的开放性理论问题。本文是讨论会议议题“新物理的拓扑化身”的一部分。
