Three physicists behind the breakthrough have been named winners of the 2026 Europhysics Prize, one of Europe’s most prestigious honors in condensed matter physics. The European Physical Society’s Division of Condensed Matter Properties selected Professor Jairo Sinova, Dr. Libor Schmeikal, and Professor Tomas Jungwirth for their work establishing altermagnetism as a distinct form of magnetic order.

“This prize recognizes fundamental discoveries that challenge one of the most established paradigms of condensed matter physics,” said Professor Jairo Sinova, Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Spin Phenomena at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. “The discovery that an entirely new magnetic phase has been hidden for more than 100 years shows that even the most mature fields of science can still hold fundamental surprises.”

The breakthrough resulted from a long-standing collaboration between Sinova’s research group at the University of Mainz and Jungwirth’s team at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. Schmeikal, who is also affiliated with Prague, spent eight years in Mainz from 2016 to 2024, first conducting doctoral research and later working as a postdoctoral researcher in Sinova’s group.

During that time, Schmeikal played a leading role in developing the theoretical framework for altermagnetism. By combining advanced mathematical approaches to symmetry with spintronics—the study of how electron spin can be used in electronic devices—the researchers identified previously unrecognized patterns in magnetic behavior.

Their predictions soon attracted experimental teams around the world. Measurements of electronic properties and electrical transport in multiple materials provided evidence for the new magnetic classification. Since then, altermagnetism has become one of the most active areas in condensed matter physics, with research expanding across Europe, North America, and Asia.

What is altermagnetism?

For more than 100 years, physicists generally classified collinear magnets into two main categories: ferromagnets and antiferromagnets.

In ferromagnetic materials, magnetic moments align in a way that creates a net magnetization. These materials are essential to many magnetic memory technologies used today.

In conventional antiferromagnets, opposing magnetic moments cancel each other out. As a result, the material has no overall magnetization and displays electronic behavior that differs significantly from that of ferromagnets.

Altermagnets offer a surprising third possibility.

Like antiferromagnets, altermagnets have magnetic moments that cancel, producing no net magnetization. However, their electrons can also display properties traditionally associated with ferromagnets, including strongly spin-polarized electrical behavior.

This unusual combination could allow altermagnets to support extremely rapid magnetization dynamics while carrying electrical currents with polarized electron spins. Those characteristics may prove valuable in a new generation of spintronic devices designed to improve the speed and functionality of information technologies.

The significance of altermagnetism extends beyond electronics. It represents a previously unrecognized symmetry class of materials and reveals unexpected links to several major areas of modern physics, including topological phenomena, unconventional superconductivity, and strongly correlated quantum materials.

How was altermagnetism discovered?

The path to the discovery began with theoretical research into the unusual way electricity moves through magnetic materials. One early advance was the prediction of the crystalline anomalous Hall effect, a phenomenon linked to electrical transport in certain crystal structures.

At first, these unexpected behaviors appeared to be unusual characteristics of individual materials. Researchers eventually recognized that they were connected by broader principles involving electron-spin symmetry.

Rather than being isolated exceptions to established magnetic behavior, the materials belonged to a distinct magnetic category.

A major milestone came in 2022, when the research team published a comprehensive symmetry classification of altermagnetism and identified hundreds of materials that could exhibit the phenomenon.

Experimental physicists then tested the predictions using several complementary techniques. These included angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), which reveals how electrons behave inside materials, along with electrical-transport measurements.

The results confirmed altermagnetic behavior in several materials and helped establish the new classification experimentally.

Interest in the discovery has grown rapidly. Within a few years, hundreds of scientific papers had been published, and altermagnetism had become an important topic at the International Congress of Physics. Researchers around the world are now studying both its fundamental properties and its potential technological applications.

Altermagnetism researchers win the 2026 Europhysics Prize

The Europhysics Prize recognizes major advances in condensed matter physics, the field focused on the physical properties and behavior of matter. Established in 1975, the award honors discoveries that significantly advance scientific understanding.

The 2026 prize recognizes the theoretical and experimental advances that established altermagnetism as a new fundamental form of collinear magnetic order.

The award ceremony was scheduled to take place at the 32nd Congress of the European Physical Society, CMD32, in Graz, Austria, in September 2026.

The scientists behind the discovery

Professor Jairo Sinova is a professor of physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany and director of the university’s Interdisciplinary Center for Spin Phenomena. His research focuses on magnetism, spintronics, and quantum materials.

Dr. Libor Schmeikal worked at the University of Mainz from 2016 to 2024, conducting much of the theoretical research that led to the identification of altermagnetism. His current affiliations include the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Chemistry and Physics, and the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Professor Tomas Jungwirth is affiliated with the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the University of Nottingham. He collaborated extensively with the Mainz research team and played a central role in establishing the theoretical foundations of altermagnetism.

Together, their work revealed fundamental properties of magnetic materials that had remained unrecognized for more than a century, opening new directions for research in quantum physics, spintronics, and future electronic technologies.