Physicists have identified a third fundamental class of magnetism, known as altermagnetism, overturning an understanding of magnetic behavior that had stood for more than a century. The European Physical Society has named Professor Jairo Sinova, Dr. Libor Šmejkal and Professor Tomas Jungwirth as recipients of the 2026 Europhysics Prize for establishing altermagnetism as a distinct magnetic order alongside ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism.
For more than a hundred years, physicists divided collinear magnets into two fundamental categories: ferromagnets, which have a net magnetization and are essential to many magnetic memory technologies, and antiferromagnets, whose opposing magnetic moments cancel one another out. Altermagnetism introduces a third possibility. Like antiferromagnets, altermagnets have no net magnetization, but their electrons can display properties previously associated with ferromagnets, including supporting electrical currents with strongly polarized electron spins and switching at very high speed.
That combination could make altermagnets valuable for a new generation of spintronic devices, which use electron spin rather than charge to carry information. The discovery also connects to topological phenomena, unconventional superconductivity and quantum materials with strongly interacting electrons.
The breakthrough came from collaboration between Sinova's research group at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Jungwirth's team at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. Šmejkal, who worked at Mainz from 2016 to 2024, played a leading role in developing the theoretical framework, combining advanced symmetry analysis with spintronics.
In 2022, the team published a comprehensive symmetry classification of altermagnetism and identified hundreds of materials that could potentially show it. Experimental physicists then tested those predictions using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, which reveals how electrons behave inside materials, along with electrical transport measurements. The results confirmed altermagnetic behavior in several materials.
Sinova said the award recognized a fundamental discovery. "This award recognizes a fundamental discovery that challenged one of the most established paradigms in condensed matter physics," he said. "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 field has since grown rapidly, with hundreds of scientific papers and research programmes across Europe, North America and Asia. The award ceremony was scheduled for September 2026 at the 32nd General Conference of the European Physical Society Condensed Matter Division in Graz, Austria.
Analysis
Why This Matters
- Altermagnetism rewrites a fundamental chapter of physics: a previously unrecognized class of magnetic matter had been hiding in plain sight for more than a century.
- Because altermagnets combine no net magnetization with ferromagnet-like electron behavior, they open a new route to spintronic memory and logic that could be faster and more energy efficient than conventional electronics.
- The Europhysics Prize places the discovery at the center of condensed matter research, likely accelerating work on quantum materials, topological phenomena and unconventional superconductivity.
Background
For most of modern physics, collinear magnets came in two kinds. Ferromagnets keep a net magnetic alignment, which is why they are used in magnetic memory and storage. Antiferromagnets have opposing moments that cancel, leaving no overall magnetization and very different electronic behavior. Altermagnets split the difference: they cancel magnetically like antiferromagnets, yet their electrons behave in ways once thought unique to ferromagnets. The discovery grew out of spintronics research, a field that studies how the spin of electrons can be used to carry and store information.
Key Perspectives
The discovery team: Sinova, Šmejkal and Jungwirth argue that altermagnetism is a fundamental discovery that challenges one of the most established paradigms in condensed matter physics. Their theoretical predictions, published in a 2022 classification, identified the new magnetic order and hundreds of candidate materials.
Experimental physics community: Researchers around the world have taken up the predictions and confirmed altermagnetic behavior in several materials using photoemission and electrical transport measurements. The rapid growth of the field, visible in hundreds of papers and conference sessions, reflects broad scientific acceptance.
Technologists and skeptics: The practical payoff is still prospective. Altermagnetic materials must be turned into working spintronic devices before their promised speed and efficiency can be demonstrated. The current prize recognizes a fundamental advance, not a commercial technology, and the gap between laboratory confirmation and real-world applications remains the central test.
What to Watch
- Further experimental confirmations of altermagnetism in more of the hundreds of candidate materials identified in the 2022 classification.
- First device demonstrations, such as memory or logic elements that use the spin-polarized currents altermagnets can carry.
- Whether the predicted connections to unconventional superconductivity and topological matter produce new experimental results in those fields.
