In recognition of this paradigm-shifting achievement, three of the leading physicists responsible for the breakthrough have been named the recipients of the prestigious 2026 Europhysics Prize. One of Europe’s highest honors in the field of condensed matter physics, the award was bestowed by the European Physical Society (EPS) Condensed Matter Division upon Professor Jairo Sinova of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Dr. Libor Šmejkal, and Professor Tomas Jungwirth. They were honored specifically for establishing altermagnetism as a distinct, independent form of magnetic order.
"This award recognizes a fundamental discovery that challenged one of the most established paradigms in condensed matter physics," said Professor Jairo Sinova, who 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 monumental breakthrough emerged from years of intensive, cross-border collaboration between Sinova’s vibrant 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 an academic affiliation in Prague, spent eight highly productive years at Mainz between 2016 and 2024, initially pursuing his doctoral research before transitioning to work as a postdoctoral scientist within Sinova’s group.
During that formative period, Šmejkal played a central, leading role in developing the complex theoretical framework that underpins altermagnetism. By brilliantly combining advanced mathematical approaches to symmetry with the principles of spintronics—a rapidly evolving field that studies how the intrinsic spin of electrons can be utilized in electronic devices—the researchers were able to identify a previously unrecognized, intricate pattern of magnetic behavior.
Their bold theoretical predictions swiftly attracted the attention and efforts of experimental physics teams all around the world. Subsequent measurements of electronic properties and electrical transport across multiple distinct materials provided concrete, empirical evidence supporting the new magnetic classification. Since its initial proposition, altermagnetism has rapidly grown into one of the most vibrant and active areas of modern condensed matter physics, with research initiatives and collaborative laboratories expanding exponentially across Europe, North America, and Asia.
A Third Form of Magnetism Rewrites Physics
For well over a hundred years, the global physics community generally divided collinear magnets into two foundational, mutually exclusive categories: ferromagnets and antiferromagnets.
Ferromagnets are characterized by an overall parallel magnetic alignment that produces a strong, net macroscopic magnetization. Because of this property, these materials have remained essential building blocks for a vast array of magnetic memory and data storage technologies used throughout modern society. In stark contrast, conventional antiferromagnets feature opposing magnetic moments that perfectly cancel one another out, leaving zero net magnetization. This fundamental cancellation results in electronic behaviors that are drastically different from those observed in ferromagnets.
Altermagnetism introduces a surprising, elegantly complex third possibility that bridges aspects of both worlds.
Like traditional antiferromagnets, altermagnets possess internal magnetic moments that ultimately cancel out, resulting in no net external magnetization. However, beneath the surface, their electronic structures behave in ways that were previously thought to be exclusive to ferromagnets. Their electrons exhibit distinct, momentum-dependent spin polarizations that break conventional symmetries in unexpected ways.
This unusual combination of properties allows altermagnets to support electrical currents carrying strongly polarized electron spins while simultaneously displaying extremely rapid internal magnetic dynamics. These unique characteristics could render them exceptionally valuable for a brand-new generation of spintronic devices, potentially accelerating the processing speed, energy efficiency, and storage capabilities of future information technologies.
The broader scientific significance of this discovery extends far beyond classical electronics and data storage. Altermagnetism represents a previously unrecognized symmetry class of matter, and its identification has unexpectedly revealed profound connections to several major, complex areas of modern theoretical physics. These include topological phenomena, unconventional superconductivity, and quantum materials characterized by exceptionally strong interactions between electrons.
How Scientists Discovered Altermagnetism
The winding path toward this historic discovery began with deep theoretical investigations into unusual, non-standard ways that electricity moves through various magnetic materials. Among the early conceptual advances was the prediction of the crystal anomalous Hall effect, a subtle phenomenon involving complex electrical transport within specific, highly ordered crystal structures.
Initially, these unexpected behavioral anomalies might have easily been dismissed as isolated quirks or idiosyncratic features of individual, rare materials. However, the persistence of the researchers paid off as they eventually recognized that these disparate phenomena were fundamentally connected by a much broader, underlying principle concerning the intricate symmetries of electron spins.
Rather than representing rare, isolated exceptions to long-established rules of magnetic behavior, these materials were actually pointing toward an entirely different, previously unimagined magnetic category.
A major historical milestone was achieved in 2022, when the collaborative research team published a comprehensive, rigorous symmetry classification of altermagnetism. In that landmark publication, they identified hundreds of candidate materials that possessed the necessary crystal structures and symmetry properties to potentially exhibit this elusive state.
Experimental physicists subsequently set out to test these bold theoretical predictions using a battery of advanced, complementary methods. These methodologies notably included angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), a sophisticated technique that directly reveals how electrons behave and distribute themselves inside solid materials, alongside high-precision measurements of electrical transport under varying physical conditions.
The resulting empirical data definitively confirmed altermagnetic behavior in several key materials, successfully anchoring the theoretical classification into verified physical reality.
In the wake of these findings, interest across the global scientific community has exploded. Hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific papers have been published within just a few years, and altermagnetism has quickly become a prominent, highly anticipated subject at major international physics conferences. The rapidly expanding research community is now actively investigating both the deep fundamental properties of these materials and their vast array of potential technological applications.
Discovery Earns Prestigious 2026 Europhysics Prize
The Europhysics Prize is widely celebrated as one of the most distinguished accolades in condensed matter physics, a vast field dedicated to understanding the complex physical properties, phases, and behaviors of matter in solid and liquid states. Established back in 1975, the award specifically honors major discoveries and breakthroughs that have significantly advanced scientific understanding, with a substantial share of the recognized research historically originating within European institutions.
The 2026 prize directly acknowledges the combined theoretical and experimental breakthroughs that successfully established altermagnetism as a new, fundamental form of collinear magnetic order.
The formal award ceremony has been scheduled to take place in September 2026 at the upcoming 32nd General Conference of the European Physical Society Condensed Matter Division (CMD32), which will be hosted in Graz, Austria.
The Scientists Behind the Breakthrough
The success of this paradigm-shifting research is a testament to the dedication of its principal architects. Professor Jairo Sinova is a prominent physics professor at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany, where he also leads the university’s Spin Phenomena Interdisciplinary Center. His overarching research portfolio deeply investigates magnetism, advanced spintronics, and complex quantum materials.
Dr. Libor Šmejkal conducted much of the crucial, heavy-lifting theoretical work that led directly to the identification of altermagnetism during his tenure at Mainz University from 2016 to 2024. His current professional and academic affiliations include the 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 holds academic appointments at 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 research group, playing a central, visionary role in establishing the foundational theoretical underpinnings of altermagnetism.
Together, their collaborative efforts have successfully illuminated a fundamental property of magnetic matter that completely escaped human recognition for more than a century, ultimately opening an entirely new, uncharted direction for ongoing research into quantum physics and future electronic technologies.
