New understanding of electromagnetism could enable ’antennas on a chip’

New understanding of the nature of electromagnetism could lead to antennas small enough to fit on computer chips - the 'last frontier' of semiconductor design - and could help identify the points where theories of classical electromagnetism and quantum mechanics overlap. This is the missing piece of the puzzle of electromagnetic theory - Gehan Amaratunga A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge have unravelled one of the mysteries of electromagnetism, which could enable the design of antennas small enough to be integrated into an electronic chip. These ultra-small antennas - the so-called 'last frontier' of semiconductor design - would be a massive leap forward for wireless. In new results published in the journal Physical Review Letters , the researchers have proposed that electromagnetic waves are generated not only from the acceleration of electrons, but also from a phenomenon known as symmetry breaking. In addition to the implications for wireless , the discovery could help identify the points where theories of classical electromagnetism and quantum mechanics overlap. The phenomenon of radiation due to electron acceleration, first identified more than a century ago, has no counterpart in quantum mechanics, where electrons are assumed to jump from higher to lower energy states. These new observations of radiation resulting from broken symmetry of the electric field may provide some link between the two fields.