Abstract

Existence of the magnetic monopole is compatible with the fundamental laws of nature; however, this elusive particle has yet to be detected experimentally. We show theoretically that an electric charge near a topological surface state induces an image magnetic monopole charge due to the topological magneto-electric effect. The magnetic field generated by the image magnetic monopole may be experimentally measured, and the inverse square law of the field dependence can be determined quantitatively. We propose that this effect can be used to experimentally realize a gas of quantum particles carrying fractional statistics, consisting of the bound states of the electric charge and the image magnetic monopole charge.

Keywords

Magnetic monopolePhysicsMagnetic fieldTopological quantum numberCharge (physics)Electric chargeTopology (electrical circuits)Surface (topology)Electric fieldCondensed matter physicsQuantum mechanicsGeometryMathematics

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Publication Info

Year
2009
Type
article
Volume
323
Issue
5918
Pages
1184-1187
Citations
945
Access
Closed

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Cite This

Xiao-Liang Qi, Rundong Li, Jiadong Zang et al. (2009). Inducing a Magnetic Monopole with Topological Surface States. Science , 323 (5918) , 1184-1187. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1167747

Identifiers

DOI
10.1126/science.1167747
PMID
19179491
arXiv
0811.1303

Data Quality

Data completeness: 84%