magnetism tagged posts

There are several theories about how Earth and its moon were formed, most involving a giant impact. Now scientists at the University of Leeds and the University of Chicago have analyzed the dynamics of fluids and electrically conducting fluids and concluded that Earth must have been magnetized either before the impact or as a result of it.

They claim this could help to narrow down the theories of the Earth-moon formation and inform future research into what really happened. Their work is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Professor David Hughes, an applied mathematician in the School of Mathematics at the University of Leeds, said, “Our new idea is to point out that our theoretical understanding of the Earth’s magnetic field today can a...

A physicist’s discovery could lead to the engineering of high-temp superconducting properties into materials useful for quantum computing, medical imaging.

Superconductors — metals in which electricity flows without resistance — hold promise as the defining material of the near future, according to physicist Brad Ramshaw, and are already used in medical imaging machines, drug discovery research and quantum computers being built by Google and IBM.

However, the super-...

A new study demonstrating the emergence of localized magnetism due to a 2D nanomaterial’s unique, star-like atomic-scale structure has potential for applications in next-generation electronics based on organic nanomaterials, where tuning of electronic interactions can lead to a vast range of new electronic and magnetic phases.

A 2D nanomaterial consisting of organic molecules linked to metal atoms in a specific atomic-scale geometry shows non-trivial electronic and magnetic properties due to strong interactions between its electrons.

A new study, published today, shows the emergence...

microscopy technique to measure magnetism at the atomic scale. Credit: ORNL

Scientists can now detect magnetic behavior at the atomic level with a new electron microscopy technique developed by a team from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Lab and Uppsala University, Sweden. They took a counterintuitive approach by taking advantage of optical distortions that they typically try to eliminate.

ORNL’s Juan Carlos Idrobo said: “We will be able to study materials in a new way. Hard drives, for instance, are made by magnetic domains, and those magnetic domains are about 10 nanometers apart.” The researchers plan to refine their technique to collect magnetic signals from individual atoms that are 10X smaller than a nanometer...