Fermion-boson puzzle in a gauge theory

Abstract

It is argued that magnetic monopoles in an SU(2) gauge theory may bind with an ordinary boson with isospin, to give bound states with spin. If the isospin of the free boson is integer or half-odd-integer, the total angular mometum of the bound state is integer or half-odd-integer, respectively. According to the spin-statistics theorem we can obtain fermions this way in a theory that started off with bosons only.