Seminář ÚTFA: Subhroneel Chakrabarti

The Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics invites you to the department seminary:

Subhroneel Chakrabarti: Magnetic Monopoles: A Scientific Odyssey

We all know that electric charges exist in isolation — positive or negative — while magnets always come with a pair of poles, north and south. As of today, we are yet to directly detect the elusive magnetic monopole, a magnet with just one pole. Despite this lack of evidence, for over 120 years, the magnetic monopole has consistently captured the imagination of some of the greatest minds in physics, who have returned to its study time and again.

In this talk, we will retrace the journey of magnetic monopoles, uncovering the rich tapestry of puzzles and paradoxes they introduce, both at the quantum and at the classical level, when integrated into the fundamental framework of electrodynamics. Along the way, we will discover how monopoles intriguingly emerge as potential answers to some of physics' most profound questions. Finally, I will share highlights from our latest work, where we introduce a systematic framework for the quantum theory of monopoles — one that resolves these longstanding puzzles.