Physicists study magnetism with the roles of position and momentum reversed
Thursday, November 20, 2014 - 09:30
in Physics & Chemistry
(Phys.org) —Normally, the strength of a magnetic field increases as you get closer to a magnet and decreases as you move further away—a concept easily understood when placing magnets near a refrigerator, for instance. But recent research has shown that exotic "momentum-space artificial magnetic fields" can be created where the strength of the magnetic field depends on how fast a particle moves, instead of where the particle is. In other words, the roles of position and momentum are swapped.