HONOURS PHYSICS DISSERTATIONS
The Gravitationally Coupled Magnetic Monopole
Emilie Pelchat
Thursday, April 30, 2009
1:00 pm
Nicolls 1
This honours thesis will discuss solitons (localized waves that retain their form even after interactions) in various dimensions. More specifically, a soliton in 3+1 dimensions will be considered: the magnetic monopole. Magnetic monopoles have been considered in the past in flat spacetime where they can arise from spontaneous symmetry breaking. In fact, the monopole is predicted by several theories in physics (Grand Unified Theories, String theory...), although it has never been experimentally observed. Here, the magnetic monopole will be embedded in a curved spacetime which obeys a conformal symmetry. If that symmetry is broken via gravitation itself, the result is not only the magnetic monopole with its radial magnetic field, but it will also induce Einstein gravity with a cosmological constant.
