Physicists Awarded For Discovering Third Form Of Magnetism

In September 2026, three physicists will receive a prestigious European award for discovering a new category of magnetism. The European Physical Society has awarded the 2026 Europhysics Prize to Jairo Sinova, Libor Šmejkal, and Tomas Jungwirth. This award recognizes their discovery of altermagnetism, which represents a third fundamental class of collinear magnetic materials.

For over a century, scientists believed that magnetic materials could only be classified as either ferromagnets or antiferromagnets. Ferromagnets, which possess a net magnetic field, are commonly used to store digital data in computer memories. On the other hand, traditional antiferromagnets are magnetically compensated and do not show an external magnetic pull.

The researchers revealed that altermagnets combine features from both groups, showing no net magnetization while displaying unique electronic behavior. Consequently, these newly discovered materials could allow engineers to develop faster and more efficient electronic storage devices. According to the prize winners, this unexpected discovery challenged some of the most established beliefs in modern physics. Professor Jairo Sinova remarked that uncovering a new magnetic state after a century showed that established scientific fields still offered secrets.

The successful project was developed through a long partnership between researchers in Mainz, Germany, and Prague, Czech Republic. Dr. Šmejkal worked at Mainz University for eight years, where he created many of the crucial mathematical concepts. Although their initial findings were purely theoretical, laboratories worldwide have already confirmed the existence of this third magnetic state. Scientists in Europe, Asia, and North America are now investigating how these materials behave under different physical conditions. The prestigious prize will be officially presented during a physics conference in Graz, Austria, in September.