In recognition of this monumental achievement, three physicists driving the breakthrough have been named recipients of the 2026 Europhysics Prize, standing as one of Europe’s most prestigious and sought-after honors in the realm of condensed matter physics. The European Physical Society (EPS) Condensed Matter Division selected Professor Jairo Sinova of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Dr. Libor Šmejkal, and Professor Tomas Jungwirth for their pioneering work establishing altermagnetism as a distinct and independent form of magnetic order, sitting alongside the long-established categories of ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism.
"This award recognizes a fundamental discovery that challenged one of the most established paradigms in condensed matter physics," said Professor Jairo Sinova, who also serves as the Director of the Spin Phenomena Interdisciplinary Center (SPICE) at Mainz University. "Discovering that an entirely new magnetic phase had remained hidden for more than one hundred years demonstrates that even the most mature scientific fields can still hold fundamental surprises."
The historical breakthrough emerged from years of close, cross-border collaboration between Sinova’s dedicated research group at Mainz University and Jungwirth’s distinguished team at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. Dr. Šmejkal, who also maintained a vital affiliation in Prague, spent eight intensive years at Mainz between 2016 and 2024. During this period, he first pursued his doctoral research before transitioning to work as a postdoctoral scientist directly within Sinova’s research group.
Throughout those formative years, Šmejkal played a central, leading role in developing the complex theoretical framework that ultimately brought altermagnetism to light. By combining advanced mathematical approaches focused on structural symmetry with the principles of spintronics—a discipline studying how the intrinsic spin of electrons can be effectively utilized within electronic devices—the researchers successfully identified a previously unrecognized pattern of microscopic magnetic behavior.
Their bold theoretical predictions quickly caught the attention of experimental teams scattered around the globe. Subsequent measurements of electronic properties and electrical transport across multiple distinct materials provided clear, empirical evidence supporting the new magnetic classification. In the years since its initial theoretical proposition, altermagnetism has rapidly blossomed into one of the most active and intensely pursued areas of modern condensed matter physics, with research initiatives expanding dynamically across Europe, North America, and Asia.
A Third Form of Magnetism Rewrites Physics
For more than 100 years, generations of physicists have generally divided collinear magnets into two foundational categories: ferromagnets and antiferromagnets.
Ferromagnets are characterized by an overall internal magnetic alignment that produces a strong net magnetization. These materials are utterly essential to a vast array of magnetic memory technologies, data storage media, and electronic components relied upon globally today. By contrast, in conventional antiferromagnets, opposing microscopic magnetic moments precisely cancel one another out. This cancellation leaves no overall net magnetization, producing internal electronic behaviors that are drastically different from those observed in ferromagnets.
Altermagnetism introduces a surprising, previously unimagined third possibility.
Much like conventional antiferromagnets, altermagnets possess internal magnetic moments that perfectly cancel out on a macroscopic scale, resulting in zero net magnetization. However, unlike traditional antiferromagnets, their underlying electrons can exhibit distinct properties that were previously thought to be exclusively associated with ferromagnets.
This unusual, hybrid combination allows altermagnets to support electrical currents carrying strongly polarized electron spins while simultaneously displaying extremely rapid magnetic dynamics. These unique characteristics could ultimately render them exceptionally valuable for a brand-new generation of spintronic devices, potentially elevating the processing speed, energy efficiency, and operational capabilities of future information technologies.
The broader scientific significance of this phenomenon extends well beyond the boundaries of standard electronics. Altermagnetism represents a previously unrecognized symmetry class of matter, and its discovery has unexpectedly revealed profound connections to several major, complex areas of modern physics. These include topological phenomena, unconventional superconductivity, and advanced quantum materials defined by exceptionally strong interactions between their constituent electrons.
How Scientists Discovered Altermagnetism
The winding path toward this major discovery began with theoretical investigations into the unusual ways that electricity flows and moves through complex magnetic materials. Among the early milestones along this scientific journey was the prediction of the crystal anomalous Hall effect, a specialized phenomenon involving complex electrical transport within specific, highly ordered crystal structures.
Initially, these unexpected physical behaviors might have easily been mistaken for isolated, quirky features of individual, rare materials. However, the dedicated researchers eventually recognized a unifying thread: these behaviors were intimately connected by a much broader, overarching principle involving the precise symmetries of electron spins.
Rather than merely representing isolated exceptions to long-established rules of magnetic behavior, these materials actually belonged to an entirely distinct and previously uncharacterized magnetic category.
A major turning point arrived in 2022, when the research team published a comprehensive and rigorous symmetry classification of altermagnetism. In that landmark publication, they successfully identified hundreds of existing and theoretical materials that possessed the potential to exhibit this hidden magnetic state.
Following this theoretical roadmap, experimental physicists subsequently put these predictions to the test using several sophisticated, complementary methods. These testing techniques notably included angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), a powerful tool that reveals precisely how electrons behave and distribute themselves inside solid materials, alongside precision measurements of electrical transport and conductivity.
The resulting empirical data definitively confirmed altermagnetic behavior across several key materials, helping firmly establish the novel classification within the wider scientific literature.
Interest across the global physics community has expanded at a remarkable pace. Hundreds of specialized scientific papers have been published within just a few short years, and altermagnetism has swiftly transformed into a prominent, high-profile subject at major international physics conferences. The rapidly growing international research community is now deeply engaged in investigating both its fundamental physical properties and its wide-ranging potential technological applications.
Discovery Earns Prestigious 2026 Europhysics Prize
The Europhysics Prize stands as a premier accolade recognizing major scientific advances in condensed matter physics, a vast field concerned with understanding the complex physical properties, phases, and macroscopic behavior of matter. Established initially in 1975, the distinguished award honors breakthrough discoveries that have significantly pushed forward the boundaries of scientific understanding, with a substantial share of the recognized research traditionally conducted within European institutions.
The 2026 prize specifically honors the groundbreaking theoretical and experimental advances that successfully established altermagnetism as a new fundamental form of collinear magnetic order.
The official award ceremony has been scheduled to take place in September 2026 at the 32nd General Conference of the European Physical Society Condensed Matter Division (CMD32), hosted in Graz, Austria.
The Scientists Behind the Breakthrough
Professor Jairo Sinova serves as a prominent physics professor at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany, where he also acts as the director of the university’s specialized Spin Phenomena Interdisciplinary Center. His ongoing academic research investigates the intricate physics of magnetism, spintronics, and advanced quantum materials.
Dr. Libor Šmejkal conducted much of the crucial, heavy-lifting theoretical work that directly led to the identification of altermagnetism while carrying out his research at Mainz University between 2016 and 2024. His current professional affiliations include the prestigious Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, and the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Professor Tomas Jungwirth is affiliated jointly with the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the University of Nottingham. He has collaborated extensively and fruitfully with Sinova’s Mainz-based research team, playing an instrumental, central role in establishing the rigorous theoretical foundations upon which altermagnetism now stands.
Together, the combined efforts of these researchers have successfully revealed a fundamental, hidden property of magnetic matter that completely eluded human recognition for well over a century, opening an entirely fresh and unpredictable direction for future research into quantum physics and next-generation electronic technologies.
