Self-organized criticality in magnetic domain formation (invited) (abstract)
H. Suhl · Journal of Applied Physics · 1991
Certain large dissipative systems prepared in an unstable state or subject to destabilizing forces do not necessarily settle in the lowest, most ordered state. Frequently such systems have a huge number of metastable states available to them, and in cascading down from the unstable configuration, they tend to ‘‘get stuck’’ in an ‘‘only just’’ metastable state with characteristics sufficiently distinctive to justify the name ‘‘self-organization.’’ Such a configuration is critical in the sense that deviations from it die out according to a power law without time or length scales, and with a critical exponent. Magnetic domain structures seem to furnish excellent examples of this behavior; two of these will be discussed in detail. A major advantage of this state is that it can be successfully computed using only the simplest cellular automata algorithms to crudely mimic the physics. The significance to some aspects of the magnetic recording process will be discussed.