Asymmetric domain walls of small angle in soft ferromagnetic films

Abstract

We focus on a special type of domain walls appearing in the Landau-Lifshitz theory for soft ferromagnetic films. These domain walls are divergence-free $S^2$-valued transition layers that connect two directions in $S^2$ (differing by an angle $2θ$) and minimize the Dirichlet energy. Our main result is the rigorous derivation of the asymptotic structure and energy of such "asymmetric" domain walls in the limit $θ\to 0$. As an application, we deduce that a supercritical bifurcation causes the transition from symmetric to asymmetric walls in the full micromagnetic model.

45 pages, 6 figures