The origin of linear magnetoresistance—exotic or classical?

New materials sometimes exhibit spectacular resistance phenomena, though the explanation does not always prove to be exotic. Physicists from the Nijmegen High Field Magnet Laboratory (HFML) and the ETH in Zürich have demonstrated that a simple physical model is sufficient to explain the phenomenon of linear magnetoresistance. They published their results this week in an Editor’s Suggestion article in Physical Review Letters.