Tailoring of the flip effect in the orientation of a magnet levitating over a superconducting torus: Geometrical dependencies

Abstract

In a previous study, a general local model was used in order to demonstrate the apparition of a flip effect in the equilibrium orientation of a magnet when it is over a superconducting torus. This effect can be easily used in devices such as binary position detectors for magneto-microscopy, contactless sieves or magnetic levels amongst others. We present an initial study useful to design devices based on the flip effect between magnets and torus superconductors. It demonstrates that varying different geometrical parameters the flip effect point can be fixed. Also, it can be observed that increasing the inner radius of the torus elevates the flip effect point. A magneto-mechanical explanation of this phenomenon is exposed. For an increment of cross-section diameter occurs the same behavior. There are linear piecewises in the geometrical dependency functions that can be used for a more accurate fitting of the flip effect point.