First principles understanding of single domain magnetizations—Part I: the single domain comprehensive calculator (SDCC) open source library
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: SUMMARY The behaviour of uniaxial single domain magnetite particles in rock and paleomagnetic experiments was first described in the 1940s by Néel and Stoner and Wohlfarth. Since this time, micromagnetism has allowed us to gain a better understanding of magnetic particles in the single vortex or multi-domain states. By contrast, when describing the behaviour of assemblages of single domain particles, simplifying assumptions made in the 1940s are still used today. In particular, most rock and paleomagnetic simulations involve magnetite with a uniaxial anisotropy. These assumptions are not necessary in the modern day, as data on other magnetic minerals has been collected, and modern computers are powerful enough to easily calculate the behaviour of multiaxial particles. We present a new software package called the single domain comprehensive calculator (SDCC). This package can simulate a large number of thermally activated rock and paleomagnetic experiments with distributions of single domain particles. These include acquisition of viscous remanence, thermal demagnetization experiments, hysteresis loops and paleointensity protocols. The package provides a simple Python scripting interface for users to define custom experiments and run models on a laptop computer. Preliminary simulations run with the SDCC demonstrate that magnetocrystalline anisotropy can have a significant effect on the thermoviscous behaviour of single domain particles, despite normally being ignored in models. This highlights a need for further investigation into the behaviour of single domain particles.
DOI: 10.1093/gji/ggaf149
Institutions: University of Liverpool, University of Edinburgh
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,416
Awards: Determining ancient magnetic field strengths from the Earth and Solar System, G2976859837, G3486560075, MicroPI: A micromagnetic approach to absolute palaeointensity determinations, NSFGEO-NERC: The history of the Earth's magnetic field strength over the last five million years: Filling in the southern hemisphere gap, Thermochemical remanent magnetisations: How do they affect ancient magnetic field intensities from the Earth and Solar System?, VIRGIL: The VIRtual paleomaGnetIc Laboratory, G8228517516, G8384240328, Particles to Planets: Unravelling the history of our magnetic field
OpenAlex ID: W4409760059