Spontaneous spinning of a magnet levitating over a superconductor

J.E. Hirsch and D.J. Hirsch cond-mat/0303574 (Los Alamos), Physica C398, 8 (2003).

A permanent magnet levitating over a superconductor is found to spontaneously spin, overcoming resistance to air friction. We explain the physics behind this remarkable effect.

See http://physics.ucsd.edu/~jorge/spinning.html for movie clips of the effect

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