Interactions of a Massive Slow Magnetic Monopole with Matter

Introduction A concept of a magnetic monopole has been introduced into modern physics in 1931 by Paul Dirac [1]. He postulated existence of an isolated magnetic charge g. Using general principles of quantum mechanics, he has related the electric and magnetic charge values: ge = n 2 h̄c, where e is the electron electric charge, h̄ is the Plank constant, c is the speed of light, n = ±1, 2... is an integer. Numerous but unsuccessful attempts of experimental search for this magnetic monopole on accelerators and in cosmic rays [2, 3] have been done since then. Among them, exotic installations like the steel furnace have been proposed for accumulation of monopoles for subsequent detection [4]. Attempts of search for Dirac’s monopole by the ferromagnetic trap and the accelerators have been performed too [5]. The new interest to this problem has arised in 1974, when Polyakov [6] and ’t Hooft [7] have shown that such objects exist as solutions in a wide class of models with spontaneously broken symmetry. Nature of their monopoles is absolutely different from nature of other elementary particles, since they represent a non-trivial topological construction of a finite size, which originates from non-Abel fields. So registration of the Dirac monopoles or estimation of their flux limit could be an essential contribution to construction of the Grand Unified Theory, and as well it would give incentives for solutions of various