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arXiv · 2411.00240

Is Ball Lightning a Signal of Magnetic Monopoles?

John P. Ralston
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Abstract

While ball lighting is known to exist from thousands of observations, its properties have never been explained by known physics. The combined order of magnitude of power, size, time scale, and characteristic behavior of ball lightning have defeated every model. The failure of standard physics does not hinge on fine details, but on the breadth of qualitative features of the phenomenon itself. We consider the possibility that ball lighting may be a signal of physics beyond the Standard Model. The mass and energy scale of ball lightning is remarkably consistent with new physics scales of grand unified theories. We analyze a suggestion that monopole catalysis of baryon decays in air might explain ball lightning. Nothing can be done to make it consistent, including saturating interaction cross sections with unitarity bounds. However a high mass dyon partially decaying by neutralization of deeply bound electromagnetic energy explains several puzzles naturally. The study suggests new ways to search for dyons and monopoles. The organizational skills of ambitious experimental physics groups could lead to productive searches beyond the Standard Model that do not need a new particle accelerator.

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John P. Ralston. 2024-10-31. Is Ball Lightning a Signal of Magnetic Monopoles?. https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.00240

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