Scientists create a ‘magnetic wormhole’ that cloaks magnetic fields

Long predicted by theoretical physics, the notion of the wormhole connecting two different points in the time and space continuum dates back to an idea first proposed by Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen in 1935. So far, no evidence has been amassed to support their hypothesis, but now, a new lab created device has created what essentially amounts to a “magnetic wormhole” that conceals magnetic fields from outside view, making it look like the magnetic field is transmitted in one end and other the other.

“This device can transmit the magnetic field from one point in space to another point, through a path that is magnetically invisible,” explained study co-author Jordi Prat-Camps, a doctoral candidate in physics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain. “From a magnetic point of view, this device acts like a wormhole, as if the magnetic field was transferred through an extra special dimension.” 

The magnetic “invisibility cloak” was initially proposed in a research paper published with the journal Physical Review Letters in 2007, but the required materials were impractical to work with and difficult to obtain. Fast forward to 2015 and one re-evaluation later, and it’s been determined that superconductors’ ability to carry high level of charged particles and expel magnetic field lines from their interior allows them to distort or bend these lines and behave differently than their surrounding environment. This is a crucial criteria in concealing a magnetic field’s disturbance.

With that in mind, the team designed and built a three-layer object composed of two concentric spheres and an interior spiral-cylinder made from a ferromagnetic mu-metal that transmits the magnetic field from one end to the other while the other two outside layers conceal its existence. These materials are crucial to the design as ferromagnetic materials produce some of the strongest form of magnetism while mu-metals’ high level of permeability makes them well-suited for shielding electronics.

Next, a thin layer made of the high-temperature superconducting material yttrium barium copper oxide inlays the inner spiral-cylinder to endow magnetic field bending capabilities. Lastly, 150 pieces of another mu-metal are cut and arranged into the shape of the outer shell in order to cancel out the bending of the magnetic field caused by the superconducting shell.

So that underlying question motivating all technological research inevitably comes to mind: what is its the scope? Prat explains that one immediate application of the “magnetic wormhole” is in magnetic resonance imagine (MRI) machines. By being able to funnel the magnetic field from one place to another, it’s possible to use powerful magnetic fields to examine the body from a distance, without have to place people within tiny, claustrophobic machines as we do today.

Source: Space.com