Prestigious Europhysics Prize Awarded for Altermagnetism Discovery

Although researchers previously recognized only two magnetic classes, the European Physical Society has announced that its 2026 Europhysics Prize will go to three scientists who identified altermagnetism. Professor Jairo Sinova of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, alongside Prague-based Professor Tomas Jungwirth and Dr. Libor Šmejkal, secured this accolade for proving that a third category of collinear magnetism exists in nature. Prior to their work, physicists had long categorised magnetic materials as either ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic, a binary division that persisted for a century. By blending symmetry theory with spintronics, the trio successfully predicted a state of matter that exhibits no net magnetisation while retaining the highly polarised currents typical of ferromagnets.

The origins of this breakthrough trace back to a collaborative effort between Mainz and the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. During an eight-year tenure at JGU spanning 2016 to 2024, Dr. Šmejkal formulated the key theoretical foundations that culminated in the 2022 symmetry classification of these materials. Rarely has a theoretical concept generated such immediate international momentum, with experimentalists quickly verifying the predictions using advanced spectroscopic techniques. According to Sinova, who leads the Spin Phenomena Interdisciplinary Center, finding a hidden magnetic state after more than a century suggests that even highly developed scientific disciplines can still produce 'fundamental surprises.'

This novel magnetic phase is likely to revolutionise information technology, offering prospects for ultrafast, energy-efficient spintronic devices. Furthermore, altermagnetism provides intriguing links to unconventional superconductivity and topological states, albeit representing a completely different symmetry class of matter. The award will be formally presented in September 2026 at the European Physical Society's conference in Graz, Austria, celebrating an achievement that has successfully rewritten physics textbooks.