Altermagnetism: A New Paradigm in the Field of Magnetism and Topology

by Prof. Aftab Alam (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay)

Tuesday Nov 10, 2026, 4:00 PM → 6:00 PM Europe/Rome

Aula Conversi (Dipartimento di Fisica-Ed. G.Marconi)

Spintronics has emerged as a promising alternative to conventional electronics, driven by the discovery of topological phases with protected spin-polarized states and by new magnetic materials exhibiting unconventional spin-splitting phenomena. Among these, Altermagnetism has recently emerged as a distinct magnetic phase that combines the advantages of antiferromagnets
and ferromagnets through symmetry-protected, momentum-dependent spin splitting. In this talk, I will present our recent studies on the interplay between symmetry, topology, and magnetic order.
I will first discuss the discovery of GdAlSi as a noncentrosymmetric antiferromagnetic Weyl semimetal hosting nonrelativistic spin splitting and topological Weyl states, supported by first-principles calculations and spectroscopic measurements. I will then briefly introduce our recent
theoretical framework that generalizes the concept of altermagnetism to a broader family of fully compensated magnetic systems, providing new insights into symmetry-guided materials design for future spintronic and topotronic applications.