Maximum magnetic moment to angular momentum conjecture

Barrow, John David ; Gibbons, Gary William (2017-03-24)

Article

Conjectures play a central role in theoretical physics, especially those that assert an upper bound to some dimensionless ratio of physical quantities. In this paper we introduce a new such conjecture bounding the ratio of the magnetic moment to angular momentum in nature. We also discuss the current status of some old bounds on dimensionless and dimensional quantities in arbitrary spatial dimension. Our new conjecture is that the dimensionless Schuster-Wilson-Blackett number, cμ/$\textit{JG}\frac{1}{2}$, where μ is the magnetic moment and $\textit{J}$ is the angular momentum, is bounded above by a number of order unity. We verify that such a bound holds for charged rotating black holes in those theories for which exact solutions are available, including the Einstein-Maxwell theory, Kaluza-Klein theory, the Kerr-Sen black hole, and the so-called STU family of charged rotating supergravity black holes. We also discuss the current status of the maximum tension conjecture, the Dyson luminosity bound, and Thorne’s hoop conjecture.