OBSERVATIONAL LIMITS ON THE MAGNETIC-MONOPOLE STRUCTURE OF PROTONS

We report the results of a search for absorption of 42-cm radiation in neutral galactic hydrogen. One explanation of a positive result would be the existence of a type of anomalous proton whose magnetic moment arises from a distribution of magnetic charge rather than from a distribution of circulating currents. No absorption of 42-cm radiation was seen; this implies an upper limit of 2.3 × 10-4 for the abundance of this type of anomalous proton relative to protons which radiate at 21 cm. The observed absence of anomalous protons also implies an absence of primordial anomalous protons since they could not have been swept up by heavier elements during cosmic nucleosynthesis. The observation is sensitive only to anomalous protons with exactly the same value for their magnetic moment that conventional ones have. © 1979 The American Physical Society.