A kit has been created that allows kids to play with magnetic systems that are jostled by a time varying magnetic field. A single magnet will oscillate wildly due to the field oscillating back and forth. When two magnets are put together interesting things happen. When the magnets are aligned they continue to jostle. When they are antiferromagnetically aligned, however, the dipoles cancel, the magnet becomes a quadrupole, and the system is decoupled from the magnetic field. In other words the magnets do not jostle at all! This is always super surprising to the kids. This is also the key idea behind the team’s self-assembling systems.

The components are designed to have a net dipole moment. But, when they are assembled, the dipole moments cancel and they “crash” out. So, the fully assembled state is an “absorbing” state. Anything that is not assembled yet keeps being “thermal” and assembles with the remaining “thermal” particles. This framework allows yields to be increased dramatically and offer a clear advantage over assembly in equilibrium systems.