electric-magnetic duality

electric-magnetic duality

[i¦lek·trik mag¦ned·ik dü′al·əd·ē] (particle physics) The property of a physical theory in which the electric and magnetic charges exchange roles when the coupling between electric charges and electric fields, which is actually small, is made to be large, with electric charges becoming fuzzy, heavy, and strongly coupled, while the magnetic charges become pointlike, light, and weakly coupled.