{"id":244718,"date":"2026-10-01T01:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T06:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/physicists-identify-octupolar-magnetism-with-implications-for-quantum-technologies"},"modified":"2026-10-01T01:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T06:38:15","slug":"physicists-identify-octupolar-magnetism-with-implications-for-quantum-technologies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/physicists-identify-octupolar-magnetism-with-implications-for-quantum-technologies","title":{"rendered":"Physicists identify \u2018octupolar\u2019 magnetism, with implications for quantum technologies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/physicists-identify-octupolar-magnetism-with-implications-for-quantum-technologies2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Most magnets have two poles: north and south, or positive and negative, in a familiar arrangement called a \u201cdipole.\u201d But researchers are increasingly uncovering more complex forms of magnetism.<\/p>\n<p>Recent advances in quantum mechanics have revealed higher orders of magnetism, including an \u201coctupolar order\u201d in which a pattern of particles arranged in a crystalline structure within a material behaves as if it has eight magnetic poles rather than the familiar two. However, detecting and controlling these elusive magnetic states is a significant challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Now, a team led by quantum physicists at the University of Toronto has established a new method for observing quantum magnetic states using light to probe the atomic vibrations produced as electrons spin. The work is a critical first step toward harnessing multipolar magnetism for practical technologies, including next-generation data storage and computing devices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most magnets have two poles: north and south, or positive and negative, in a familiar arrangement called a \u201cdipole.\u201d But researchers are increasingly uncovering more complex forms of magnetism. Recent advances in quantum mechanics have revealed higher orders of magnetism, including an \u201coctupolar order\u201d in which a pattern of particles arranged in a crystalline structure [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1523,48,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computing","category-particle-physics","category-quantum-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}