The concept of electromagnetism is not completely understood by the researchers yet. Now with the help of a new breakthrough, researchers will be able to understand one of the mysteries of electromagnetism that could show them the way of solving the mysteries related to electromagnetism, quantum mechanics overlap.

The discovery was done by the researchers from the University of Cambridge. It has the ability to enable design of antennas small enough to be integrated into an electronic chip.

For wireless communications, such kind of ultra-small antennas, the so-called ‘last frontier’ of semiconductor design, would be a massive leap.

Researchers, in new results published in the journal Physical Review Letters, have proposed that the generation of electromagnetic waves is not only done by the acceleration of electrons, but also from a phenomenon known as symmetry breaking.

Besides, wireless communications, the discovery will also be helpful in identifying the points where theories of classical electromagnetism and quantum mechanics overlap.

The phenomenon of radiation due to electron acceleration was first identified over a century ago. So far, it has no counterpart in quantum mechanics, where electrons are assumed to jump from higher to lower energy states.

The latest observations of radiation resulting from broken symmetry of the electric field are likely to provide some link between the two fields.

Whether in a communications tower or a mobile phone, antenna is used for launching energy into free space in the form of electromagnetic or radio waves, and for the collection of energy from free space from feeding into the device.

The main problem that is faced by the modern electronics today is that the size of the antennas are still quite big and incompatible with electronic circuits, which are ultra-small and getting smaller all the time.

Professor Gehan Amaratunga of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who led the research, said, “Antennas, or aerials, are one of the limiting factors when trying to make smaller and smaller systems, since below a certain size, the losses become too great”.