Magnetic Mixing -- Electric Minicharges from Magnetic Monopoles
Felix Bruemmer, Joerg Jaeckel, Valentin V. Khoze
TL;DR
The paper addresses how hidden-sector monopoles can acquire tiny visible electric charges through magnetic mixing in theories with multiple $U(1)$ factors. It extends the Witten effect to $U(1)_1 \times U(1)_2$, derives a basis-invariant interaction-energy formula via the complex coupling matrix $\tau$, and demonstrates that both kinetic and magnetic mixing arise radiatively from heavy-sector dynamics, including an $U(1)\times SU(2)$ setup and Seiberg-Witten framework. It provides explicit charge relations $Q^e_I = n^e_I - \frac{\theta_{IJ}}{2\pi} n^m_J$ and $Q^m_I = 4\pi n^m_I$, a general energy formula, and one-loop threshold expressions for mixing, accompanied by concrete examples showing how visible minicharges emerge. The results offer a unified, duality-covariant description of abelian gauge mixing with potential experimental probes for light hidden monopoles carrying electromagnetic minicharges.
Abstract
Many extensions of the Standard Model require the existence of a "hidden" sector. We consider settings where the hidden sector in the infrared contains a U(1) gauge factor with magnetic monopoles, for instance 't Hooft-Polyakov monopoles of an underlying non-abelian gauge group. In the presence of CP violation these monopoles acquire an electric charge in the hidden sector due to the Witten effect. We show that quite generally they also acquire (small) electric charges under the visible electromagnetic gauge group. This is a result of "magnetic mixing" which, as we show, often arises as a natural partner of kinetic mixing. Both kinetic and magnetic mixing are naturally induced radiatively even if the low-energy U(1)s arise from a single non-abelian gauge group. We argue that the hidden sector monopoles can be light and their electric minicharges could thus be testable in current and near future low-energy experiments.