Topological Patterns and Dynamics in Magnetic Elements and in Condensed Matter

Topological Patterns and Dynamics in Magnetic Elements and in Condensed Matter
International Seminar & Workshop 27/6 - 8/7 2016


Scientific report


The event has focused on nontrivial topological patterns observed in magnetic elements, such as vortex singularities, domain walls and traveling waves. The relevant micromagnetic models were based on the Landau-Lifshitz equation. In parallel, some contributions were on theories developed for mesoscopic condensed matter systems, such as a Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC), which present similar patterns.


At the event, experts from physics (mainly theoretical but also experimental and computational) and mathematics have been brought together. These communities have worked in similar problems, for example, on the topological features of micromagnetic and condensed matter systems. Since there has been hardly any communication between these communities, our event had the aim to foster the interaction and collaborations between physicists and mathematicians.


In the first week (seminar week) lecture series were given by
* Felix Otto, on “Domain and wall patterns in thin-film ferromagnets” (4 lectures).
* Hans-Benjamin Braun, on “Topology, thermal fluctuations and quantum effects in nanomagnetism” (3 lectures).
* Nicolas Vukadinovic, on “Numerical methods for the Landau-Lifshitz equation in the frequency domain” (1 lecture).
These were attended by a number of young researchers (10 PhD students and 6 postdoctoral researchers) as well as by the senior participants.
The program was complemented with research talks (one per day).


In the second week a workshop was held with about 50 participants and 25 research talks. The results presented showed that the subject of micromagnetics is going to be further developed because (a) significant theoretical questions remain to be studied and (b) technological problems with industrial impact are connected to them.


Two poster sessions were organized, on Wednesday the 29th of June (seminar week) and on Tuesday the 5th of July (workshop week). In the former poster session the researchers have presented their work in short (5-10 minutes) talks before the poster session.


The meeting was successful in bringing together communities of researchers from Physics and from Mathematics. Common research interests were identified at the level of technical and applied problems. It promoted the level of understanding between these researchers to such a degree that a permanent line of communication has now been established. It has become apparent that most of the participants are interested in contributing further to the objectives of the event, so that an event of similar format can be organised in the next two year period