Detection of Monopoles
The search for monopoles can be broken up into two different groups.
The search for Dirac monopoles and the search for gut monopoles. The
lighter Dirac monopoles are easier to look for because of the lower
ionization energy. The more massive gut monopoles require more creative
searches.
The searches for Dirac monopoles take place mostly
in Supercolliders. At several different CERN facilities the are looking
for the effects of produced monopoles in liners around the interaction
regions of the particle collider. The other method is to have magnetic
material like tungsten dust near the interaction zone and then try to
extract the monopoles later. Another method is to simply take a large
amount of material and attempt to extract any monopoles that may be
bound inside it. This requires very powerful magnets and long exposure
times. So far none of the searches have returned anything
definite.
The search for gut Monopoles is limited to searching
for monopoles streaming int the earth and looking for monopoles already
bound to ferromagnetic material. The experiments looking for monopole
flux usualy consit of a device that would spike in current if a
monopole passed through it. These devices have also been inconclusive.