Electric machine

An electric machine comprising a stator, a rotor configured to rotate relative to the stator, the stator having a phase arrangement, wherein:

• the phase arrangement includes a number of legs connected in parallel at a first primary junction and a second primary junction, the number of legs being an integer greater than two;
• each leg includes a plurality of coils connected in series through a respective intermediate junction, each coil comprising a number of turns;
• each leg is connected to at least one other leg of the legs by a branch at the respective intermediate junctions such that the phase arrangement is in the form a bridge circuit;
• the phase arrangement is configured to conduct, through each leg, a motor current through the respective in series coils between the first primary junction and the second primary junction;
• the phase arrangement is configured to permit an alignment current to flow between the first primary junction and the second primary junction along an alignment current path which passes through at least one coil of two different legs of the number of legs via a respective branch;
• and
• the electric machine is configured so that:
• the motor currents cause a torque to be applied to the rotor for rotation relative to the stator, and
• the alignment current causes a translational force to be applied to the rotor.