Brilliant news for the INSPIRE group: We are very pleased to announce that Amaury Souza received the Research Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. As the group knows how to celebrate, we took the opportunity to celebrate his achievement with a traditional and popular dish from his home country Brazil: Pão de Queijo (Cheese Bread). We wish him all the best and much inspiration for his future research projects as a part of the INSPIRE group!
Phases of matter are classified according to order parameters and corresponding symmetries. For instance, water exhibits rotational symmetry, while ice breaks it. We have recently classified magnets by spin symmetries. We have found out that, remarkably, there exists yet third magnetic ordering in addition to the more common antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic orderings. The unconventional altermagnetic ordering is characterised by an unconventional time-reversal symmetry breaking in the form of alternating spin order in reciprocal space which originates from anisotropic and mutually rotated opposite spin densities in direct space. Altermagnets are predicted a plethora of effects both of fundamental and applied interest such as dissipationless and spin-polarised currents, some of which were already indicated in experiments.
Our team is currently investigating altermagnetism and topological antiferromagnetic spintronics with our collaborators from Prague, Mainz, Washington, Barranquilla, Kaiserslautern, Frankfurt, Karlsruhe, Dresden, Grenoble, Nottingham, Vienna, and Pilsen.
Current interests of our team:
Further interests - solid state theory of relativistic effects:
On July 4th and 5th the INSPIRE group had an internal group workshop in the picturesque village of Sörgenloch close to Mainz. In the nice atmosphere of Schloss Sörgenloch the INSPIRE group focused on team building processes and internal working strategies. The group also used the occasion to welcome Ulrike Ritzmann, as well as Bertrand Dupé and Marie Böttcher, who will join the group in October 2016. After a very successful first day, the group enjoyed the food and a variety of local wines served on the Schloss Sörgenloch terrace in the evening. On the second day of the workshop the group worked on presentation techniques and communication skills under the guidance of two coaches from an improvisational theater. We thank the participants for two beautiful and very successful days in Sörgenloch.
Antiferromagnets are prospective materials for spintronic applications as they show fast magnetic dynamics, low susceptibility to the magnetic fields and produce no stray fields. They have nontrivial magnetic structure, more magnetic degrees of freedoms and peculiar dynamics, as compared to ferromagnetic materials. 
Application of antiferromagnets for information storage and development implies manipulation of states with the use of the magnetic fields or electrical currents. For this one needs to study the mechanisms that govern behaviour of antiferrantiferromagentic nanoparticles and textures in the presence of the external fields. My current reseach is focused on the problems of nonequilibrium magnetic dynamics of antiferromagnets induced by spin-orbit torques, temperature gradients, mechanical stresses etc. Strong magnetoelastic coupling, which is a peculiar feature of many antiferromagnetic materials, makes these problems more complicated and more facinating.
As a teacher I have a great experience in the field of quantum information theory and hope to find a way to use antiferromagnets as the active elements of quantum bits.
This year, the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla celebrated its 50th anniversary. As part of the festivities, the 19th Catédra Europa took place from March 14th - 18th. The large scale event provides a platform for scientific and cultural encounters between Colombian and European Academia. Jairo Sinova was invited to introduce his visions for new interdisciplinary approaches to scientific work, which he likes to compare to a scientific tango. Accordingly, his lecture was entitled "El tango de la fisica".
View the video of the lecture.
Read the news article in El Heraldo from March 17th.
Read the news article in El Heraldo from March 18th.
On December 14th, the SPICE team and INSPIRE group had their Christmas party at the cosy tavern "Beichtstuhl" in the Mainz old town. In a cheerful atmosphere, the group members and their plus ones enjoyed the traditional food and wine of the region, looking back at an eventful year 2015 for both the INSPIRE group and the SPICE Center.
On the December 03rd and 4th, the SPICE team and Inspire group had an internal group seminar in the picturesque city of Bamberg in Franconia. Under the title “New Directions in the Spin Phenomena," the participants explored innovative approaches to interdisciplinary in Spintronics Research. After a nice train journey through the Bavarian landscape, SPICE-Director Jairo Sinova opened the seminar in the beautiful Barock Hotel close to the Bamberg cathedral. In the afternoon, the group had a guided tour through the old part of town followed by a visit of the famous Bamberg Christmas Market. After some Glühwein the group enjoyed traditional Bavarian food in the nice atmosphere of a quaint old town restaurant. Friday started with two workshops – one for the administrative staff led by SPICE project manager Valerie Rung and one for the scientific staff managed by our visiting postdoc Kei Yamamoto. We thank the participants for two beautiful and successful days in Bamberg.
Thanks to an initiative of Denise and the help of our universally talented student assistant and Bavaria enthusiast Alex, SPICE and the INSPIRE group hosted their own Oktoberfest and likely the first Oktoberfest in the history of Spintronics. From the traditional Oktoberfest-Bier, an especially tasty brew that is only available during the Oktoberfest season to the appropriate Bavarian music and Weißwurst (white sausage), all the essentials had been organised. Thus it is not surprising that, even if neither binge drinking nor any dancing on the tables were observed (as customary at the original event), the ambiance was great. In the midst of a public which was just as international as the one in Munich, our guest Barry Zink had the opportunity to experience some German local colour.
We are very happy to have Dr. Kei Yamamoto from Kobe University as a visiting Postdoc. Kei has a cosmology and general relativity background and is currently working on his first project in the area of the spin Hall Effect. At the INSPIRE Group, Kei wants to intensify his research about condensed matter physics and antiferromagnets in particular. He is looking forward to making use of his mathematical skills in this new field at the interface between physics and mathematics.
![2010picture[2]](http://www.sinova-group.physik.uni-mainz.de/files/2015/07/2010picture2.jpg)
Dr. Artem Abanov from Texas A&M University will be supporting our group with his research on Spintronics and strongly correlated systems. Following a number of collaborations with Jairo Sinova and other current and former members of the Sinova Group like Shayan Hemmatiyan, Yi Liu and Oleg Tretiakov as well as a shorter visit last summer, Artem will now come for a longer visit and work with us on site in Mainz.
