STATISTICAL THEORY OF WEAK FIELD THERMOREMANENT MAGNETIZATION IN MULTIDOMAIN PARTICLE ENSEMBLES

Abstract

A non-equilibrium statistical theory of multidomain thermoremanent magnetization (TRM) is developed, which describes thermal magnetization changes as continuous inhomogeneous Markov processes. The proposed theory relies on three very general physical properties of TRM: (a) The probability that a magnetization state Sj is transformed during an infinitesimal temperature change into state Si depends only on external conditions and on Sj, but not on previously assumed states. (b) Due to time inversion symmetry of the Maxwell equations, the magnetic energies are invariant with respect to inversion of all spins in zero field. (c) The probability that an energy barrier between two magnetization states is overcome during a thermal process is governed by Boltzmann statistics. From these properties, the linearity of TRM with field is derived for generic multidomain particle ensembles. The general validity of Thellier's law of additivity of partial TRM's in weak fields is established and a method for proving a large class of similar additivity laws is developed. The theory allows consistent treatment of blocking and unblocking of remanence in multidomain particle ensembles and naturally explains apparent differences between blocking and unblocking temperatures.