Something intriguing occurs when magnets are chilled to the correct degree. Atomic spins ‘freeze’ and then lock into something like a stable pattern, displaying unusually coordinated behavior.
Scientists have now observed the polar equivalent for the very first time. It turns out that the naturally present magnet material neodymium freezes when it is partially heated, upending all of our preconceptions.
When neodymium is studied under normal conditions, it behaves magnetically in the exact opposite manner. It’s like heating water and having it turn into an ice cube the other way around. Typical ferromagnetic compounds, such as iron, all have their north & south magnetic poles aligned in the same manner in three-dimensional geometry; that really is, the electromagnetic spins always match in the same path.
To better understand how neodymium reacts to temperature variations, a group of researchers set out to conduct experiments. It was discovered that cooling neodymium from -268°C to -265°C caused it to go into a frozen state, which was unexpected. When the neodymium was cooled down slowly, the spins were once again thrown out of whack.
When a natural substance acts in a manner that’s opposite to how the comparable elements of its sort behave, it’s difficult to understand why this is the case. Nevertheless, the experts think that it might be because of a phenomenon called frustration. The chaotic ground state occurs when a substance is unable to reach an organized state.
The scientists remark that this has consequences that extend well beyond the realm of physics, and they suggest that further examination may uncover the mechanism that underlies this peculiar conduct, in which order arises from chaos as a result of the supply of power.
