What happens when a magnet is cut in half?

When a magnet is cut in half, each resulting piece becomes an individual magnet with its own north and south poles. This occurs because magnets are characterized by their dipole nature; they inherently possess both a north and a south pole. When you slice a magnet, you do not disrupt this fundamental property. Instead, the magnetic domains within each half re-align themselves so that one half will now have its north pole at one end and its south pole at the other, resulting in two functional magnets rather than a loss of magnetism.

The other options describe scenarios that do not accurately reflect the properties of magnets. For instance, a magnet does not lose its magnetism upon being cut; rather, it retains its magnetic properties. The creation of a monopole, which would only have one pole without the other, is not achievable in practice with current known materials; magnetic monopoles are theoretical and have not been observed. Lastly, cutting a magnet does not cause the halves to repel each other; they may attract each other depending on their newly defined poles after being cut.