Dirac Monopoles in a Bose-Einstein Condensate

Over eighty years ago, Dirac established a theory of magnetic monopoles consistent with both classical electrodynamics and quantum mechanics [1]. I will discuss Dirac's theory and a recent realization [2] of its essential features, including a monopole, in the context of the synthetic electric and magnetic fields supported by a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. \\[4pt] [1] P. A. M. Dirac, Proc. Roy. Soc. A {\bf 133}, 60 (1931).\\[0pt] [2] M. W. Ray, E. Ruokokoski, S. Kandel, M. M\"ott\"onen, and D. S. Hall, Nature {\bf 505}, 657 (2014).