Researchers from São Paulo State University have developed a potential method to magnetize a material without applying an external magnetic field.  In the study, researchers propose that it could be produced by something called “adiabatic compression, without any exchange of heat with the environment.” Essentially, the process aligns the spins of the material’s particles and magnetizes the system. 

Spin and Entropy

Before jumping into this phenomenon, let’s delve into some of the basics of spin and entropy. First, spin is a quantum property that makes the following behave like tiny magnets — with up spin and down spin — when an external magnetic field is applied: 
  • Elementary particles (e.g., electrons and photons)
  • Compound particles (e.g., protons and neutrons)
  • Atom and molecules
Entropy is a measure of accessible configurations or states of the system. The greater the number of accessible states, the greater the entropy. One might associate the entropy of a system with the number of possible microscopic configurations that constitute its macrostate.  With paramagnetic material, it embodies a distribution of probabilities describing the number of up spins or down spins in the contained particles. 

Adiabatic Compression

With the experimental approach, magnetization occurs when salt is compressed adiabatically, without exchanging heat with its environment, in less time than what is required for thermal relaxation. The compression raises the salt’s temperature (meaning there’s a rise in entropy) while simultaneously rearranging and aligning its particle’s spins. As such, the entropy of the system stays constant. The system also remains magnetized. The researchers have since said that this kind of adiabatic temperature fluctuation could be used as a way to investigate other systems, including Bose-Einstein condensates in magnetic insulators and dipolar spin-ice systems. 

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