Third Form of Magnetism Earns Europe Top Physics Prize : Could Reshape AI Hardware

For 120 years, physics students learned that every magnetic material falls into one of two fundamental classes. That lesson is now obsolete. The European Physical Society announced Saturday that its 2026 Europhysics Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Condensed Matter Physics — one of Europe's most prestigious awards in the field, with a track record of preceding Nobel Prizes — has gone to the trio who proved that a third, long-hidden class of magnetism exists. Dr. Libor Šmejkal, Prof. Jairo Sinova, and Prof. Tomas Jungwirth discovered altermagnetism: a magnetic phase that eliminates the central design constraint holding back spintronic AI chips while operating naturally at terahertz speeds. The award — now in its 42nd edition — will be formally presented on September 22, 2026, at the 32nd General Conference of the EPS Condensed Matter Division (CMD32) in Graz, Austria, organized jointly with the Austrian Physical Society. The recognition arrives less than two years after the journal Science named altermagnetism one of the top physics breakthroughs of 2024. The field has since generated more than 1,000 subsequent studies and drawn researchers from disciplines spanning magnetism, superconductivity, quantum materials, and materials science, according to the prize citation. A review in…