Thursday, September 18, 2025

4:00 pm-5:00 pm

Isolated Magnetic Monopoles at the Interface of Materials

The search for isolated magnetic monopoles has long captivated physicists, representing a missing cornerstone of Maxwell’s equations and a tantalizing link to grand unification. While absent in our main universe (the vacuum), condensed matter physics offers a unique laboratory to construct "parallel universes” of emergent particles where the rules of interaction deviate from those in our main universe. In this landscape, so-called spin-ice materials have provided the first platform to host magnetic monopole quasiparticles. However, these monopoles are not truly isolated: the population of magnetic south poles and north poles is always equal, limiting their utility and fundamental significance. In this talk, I will demonstrate how careful design of an interface between two distinct materials enables the stabilization of isolated monopoles in a two-dimensional form. At this engineered interface, the symmetry between north and south poles is broken, allowing only a single species of magnetic charge to exist and persist independently. The result is a platform where magnetic charges can be created, manipulated, and studied as isolated entities, opening new avenues for exploring both fundamental physics and novel device concepts.