Scientists Have Confirmed the Existence of a Third Form of Magnetism
Scientists have recently crafted and taken images of a novel new magnetic substance known as an altermagnetic material. While some discoveries are theorized decades before scientists can finally make or observe them, altermagnetism has arrived in the collective scientific consciousness over just a few years. And now, in a new paper, scientists show that they can tune these materials very precicely in order to create specific directions of magnetism. This work appears in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.
In fact, they’ve been able to confirm a wild (but substantiated) theory—that altermagnetism could combine regular ferromagnetism with antiferromagnetism (as the names suggest, these were believed to be incompatible opposites). While it might not have much impact on your refrigerator magnet collection, for people who make superconductors and topological materials at near-absolute zero, this could be the next big thing.
Standard ferromagnetic materials (a word that means “guiding iron”) work by exercising a force on nearby objects made of iron or other qualifying elements and alloys. On the flip side, antiferromagnetism describes how these magnets can act in a very mild and almost invisible way on materials that don’t fall under the “ferrous” umbrella. And electromagnets—made by running a current through a coiled wire—work the same way, but more powerfully and while depending on that electrical current. Earth has a magnetic field in part because its spinning, molten metal core acts like an electromagnet.
