Left: Scheme of the experiment, with a magnetic sphere levitated inside the superconducting trap by the Meissner effect, and a qualitative illustration of the "elliptical" trajectories observed in the experiment. The scheme shows on top the superconducting SQUID detector used to measure the angular motion. Top right: Scaled 3D drawing of the trap. Bottom right: microscope picture of the magnetic sphere placed on the bottom of the trap. Credit: Felix Ahrens and Andrea Vinante.

Ferromagnets, such as iron, cobalt, and nickel, are materials with a strong, spontaneous, and permanent magnetic field.…