{"id":1045153,"date":"2026-09-05T15:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T15:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1045153\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T15:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T15:29:12","slug":"chinese-german-team-builds-ultra-sensitive-floating-compass-to-hunt-dark-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1045153\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese-German team builds ultra-sensitive \u2018floating compass\u2019 to hunt dark matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chinese researchers have developed a table-top magnetic sensor<\/a> that operates at room temperature and can spot magnetic signals a billion times fainter than the Earth\u2019s own field.The Levitated Magnet Magnetometer (LeMaMa) functions like a compass with a needle that floats in mid-air with virtually no friction. By tracking the needle\u2019s tiny deflections, the team can measure magnetic fields down to the femtotesla level \u2013 an advance that could widen the hunt for elusive dark matter<\/a> particles or monitor brain signals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe combination of room-temperature operation, tiny components and high sensitivity makes LeMaMa promising for fundamental physics experiments,\u201d Ji Wei, assistant professor at Peking University\u2019s school of physics and corresponding author of the study, told Guangming Daily on August 17.<\/p>\n

Magnetic fields<\/a> are everywhere, ranging in strength from about 1.5 tesla for a hospital magnetic resonance imaging machine to the vanishingly weak femtotesla, or a quadrillionth of a tesla, generated by human brain activity. Measuring the tiniest magnetic fields has long been a challenge.Now, scientists from China\u2019s Peking University<\/a> and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany have built the world\u2019s first room-temperature ultraprecise magnetometer<\/a> based on a levitated magnet. Their work was published in the journal Science on August 6.<\/p>\n

Until now, femtotesla-level measurements have mainly relied on two approaches. One is the superconducting quantum interference device (Squid) magnetometer, which offers excellent sensitivity but must operate at cryogenic temperatures near absolute zero, requiring bulky and expensive liquid-helium cooling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chinese researchers have developed a table-top magnetic sensor that operates at room temperature and can spot magnetic signals…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1045154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[25],"tags":[418352,74,22165,21744,418354,117,397494,418357,294548,418356,18434,418353,191986,23266,418355,811,33728,492,159,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1045153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-physics","tag-brain-signals","tag-china","tag-chinese","tag-dark-matter","tag-femtotesla","tag-germany","tag-guangming-daily","tag-ji-wei","tag-johannes-gutenberg-university-mainz","tag-lemama","tag-magnetic-fields","tag-magnetic-sensor","tag-magnetometer","tag-mri","tag-particle-detection","tag-particles","tag-peking-university","tag-physics","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117219148796569374","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1045153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1045154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1045153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1045153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1045153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}