Scientists suggest Using magnetism instead of electrons to process information And keep developing Cheap and powerful computersCompromised because of the heat produced by them.

“The function of a computer is to send Electric power through a microchip. Although the amount is small, the current not only carries information but also helps Heat the chips. When you have a lot of tight components, heat becomes a problem. This is one of the reasons We have reached the limit of how many components can be reduced. Computer Based on magnetism This will prevent overheating, ”said Professor Kim Lefman, of the Department of Condensed Matter Physics, the Nils Boris Institute (NBI) and the University of Copenhagen. Their research is published in the journal Nature Communications.

“Our discovery is not a direct recipe for making a computer based on magnetism. Rather, we have identified a Control fundamental magnetic property“If you want to create such a computer,” he added in a statement.

To understand discovery, it is essential to know that Magnetic materials do not necessarily have a uniform orientation. In other words, areas with north and south magnetic poles can coexist. These areas are called domains and the border is between the North and South Poles Domain wall.

Although the domain wall is not a physical object, it has similar properties to several particles. This is an example of what physicists call it QuasiparticlesThat is, virtual phenomena that resemble particles.

“It is well established that the position of a domain wall can be moved using a magnetic field. Initially, the wall responds similarly to a physical object that is subject to gravity and accelerates until it hits the surface. However, other laws apply to the quantum world,” explains Kim Lefman.

“At the quantum level, particles are not just objects, they are also waves. This also applies to quasi-particles such as the domain wall. The properties of a wave imply that the acceleration is slowed down when the wall interacts with the surrounding atoms. “Soon the acceleration will stop completely and the position of the wall will start to shake.”

A similar phenomenon is observed for electrons. Here it is known as Block oscillations In honor of Swiss-American physicist and Nobel laureate Felix Bloch, who discovered them in 1929.

In 1996, Swiss theoretical physicists suggested that it might May be parallel to block oscillations in magnetism. Now, just a quarter of a century later, Kim Lefman and his colleagues have been able to confirm this hypothesis. A team of researchers studied the motion of domain walls in a magnetic material called CoCl2 · 2D2O.

“We have known for a long time that it would be possible to test a hypothesis, but we also understood that it required access to neutron sources. Unusually, neutrons respond to magnetic fields even though they are not electrically charged. This makes them ideal. “Magnetic studies,” said Kim Lefman.

Neutron sources are large-scale scientific instruments. There are only about twenty installations in the world and the competition for airtime is fierce. The team has only now been able to obtain enough data to satisfy the editors of Nature Communications.

“We have had beam times at NIST in the US and ILL in France. Fortunately, the magnetic resonance imaging conditions will improve significantly as the ESS (European Spallet Source) is launched in Lund, Sweden,” Kim said. Lefman.

To find out, he emphasizes that although this is quantum mechanics, A magnetism-based computer will not be a quantum computer type. “It is expected that in the future, quantum computers will be able to handle extremely difficult tasks. But even then, we still need conventional computers for the most conventional computing. “This is where magnetism-based computers can become more relevant alternatives than today’s computers.”