Nano-magnet revolution

Already in 1842, British mathematician Samuel Earnshaw proved that there is no stable configuration of levitating permanent magnets. If one magnet is levitated above another, the smallest disturbance will cause the system to crash. The magnetic top, a popular toy, circumvents the Earnshaw theorem: When it is disturbed, the gyrating motion of the top causes a system correction and stability is maintained.

In collaboration with researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Munich, physicists in Oriol Romero-Isart's research group at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, Innsbruck University, and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Austrian Academy of Sciences, have now shown that: "In the quantum world, tiny non-gyrating nanoparticles can stably levitate in a magnetic field." "Quantum mechanical properties that are not noticeable in the macroscopic world but strongly influence nano objects are accountable for this phenomenon," says Oriol Romero-Isart.

Stability caused by gyromagnetic effect on nano-partcles which can be collected together to make impossible nano-based suspensions. Like flying skateboards in “back to future”. Or wheels for hyperloops. 21^st is on us Faster, blind as we are on exponential curves.