Dirac monopoles and dipoles in ferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We investigate a radial spin hedgehog, analogous to the Dirac monopole, in an optically trapped atomic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate. By joining together a monopole-antimonopole pair, we may form a vortex line with free ends. We numerically simulate the three-dimensional dynamics and imaginary time relaxation of these structures to nonsingular textures and show they can be observable for realistic experimental parameters.