Project

Global and local dynamics in thermally active magnetic many-body systems

Code
01P06316
Duration
01 October 2016 → 01 October 2018
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Classical physics
    • Elementary particle and high energy physics
    • Other physical sciences
Keywords
magnetic many-body systems
 
Project description

The behaviour of individual magnets with nanometer dimensions is relatively simple, but when a large number of them are combined, some very surprising and exciting phenomena will appear due to their mutual interactions. For instance, magnets want to align with their neighbours. However, in an ordered structure like a honeycomb lattice, this is not possible for every magnet. Even in the most optimal configuration, there still are magnets which lie in an unfavourable direction, a property called frustration. The frustrated magnets result in a magnetic charges, which can be associated with virtual particles. As these particles can move around, they could be used in technological applications. With this project, we want to learn how we can manipulate them and control their motion. Nano magnets are also being used in biomedical applications like cancer treatment (hyperthermia) or medical imaging. Their small size allows them to reach any part of the body and they can easily be detected and manipulated thanks to their magnetic properties. However, the interactions between the nano magnets are often neglected due to the complexity of the system. This impedes the use of these applications at their full potential. We want to address this problem by developing models that take these interactions into account.