Convergence of an implicit–explicit midpoint scheme for computational micromagnetics

Based on lowest-order finite elements in space, we consider the numerical integration of the Landau–Lifschitz–Gilbert equation (LLG). The dynamics of LLG is driven by the so-called effective field which usually consists of the exchange field, the external field, and lower-order contributions such as the stray field. The latter requires the solution of an additional partial differential equation in full space. Following Bartels and Prohl (2006), we employ the implicit midpoint rule to treat the exchange field. However, in order to treat the lower-order terms effectively, we combine the midpoint rule with an explicit Adams–Bashforth scheme. The resulting integrator is formally of second-order in time, and we prove unconditional convergence towards a weak solution of LLG. Numerical experiments underpin the theoretical findings

The Mass-Lumped Midpoint Scheme for Computational Micromagnetics: Newton Linearization and Application to Magnetic Skyrmion Dynamics

We discuss a mass-lumped midpoint scheme for the numerical approximation of the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation, which models the dynamics of the magnetization in ferromagnetic materials. In addition to the classical micromagnetic field contributions, our setting covers the non-standard Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, which is the essential ingredient for the enucleation and stabilization of magnetic skyrmions. Our analysis also includes the inexact solution of the arising nonlinear systems, for which we discuss both a constraint-preserving fixed-point solver from the literature and a novel approach based on the Newton method. We numerically compare the two linearization techniques and show that the Newton solver leads to a considerably lower number of nonlinear iterations. Moreover, in a numerical study on magnetic skyrmions, we demonstrate that, for magnetization dynamics that are very sensitive to energy perturbations, the midpoint scheme, due to its conservation properties, is superior to the dissipative tangent plane schemes from the literature

Computational micromagnetics with Commics

We present our open-source Python module Commics for the study of the magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic materials via micromagnetic simulations. It implements state-of-the-art unconditionally convergent finite element methods for the numerical integration of the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation. The implementation is based on the multiphysics finite element software Netgen/NGSolve. The simulation scripts are written in Python, which leads to very readable code and direct access to extensive post-processing. Together with documentation and example scripts, the code is freely available on GitLab. Program summary: Program title: Commics Program Files doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/29wv9h78h7.1 Licensing provisions: GPLv3 Programming language: Python3 Nature of problem: Numerical integration of the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation in three space dimensions Solution method: Tangent plane scheme [1]: original first-order version, projection-free version, second-order version, efficient second-order IMEX version; Midpoint scheme [2]: original version, IMEX version; Magnetostatic Maxwell equations are treated by the hybrid FEM–BEM method [3] Additional comments including restrictions and unusual features: An installation of the finite element software Netgen/NGSolve and an installation of the boundary element library BEM++ are required. References [1] F. Alouges. A new finite element scheme for Landau–Lifchitz equations. Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. Ser. S, 1(2):187–196, 2008. [2] S. Bartels and A. Prohl. Convergence of an implicit finite element method for the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation. SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 44(4):1405–1419, 2006. [3] D. R. Fredkin and T. R. Koehler. Hybrid method for computing demagnetization fields. IEEE Trans. Magn., 26(2):415–417, 1990

Linear second-order IMEX-type integrator for the (eddy current) Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation

Combining ideas from Alouges et al. (2014, A convergent and precise finite element scheme for Landau–Lifschitz–Gilbert equation. Numer. Math., 128, 407–430) and Praetorius et al. (2018, Convergence of an implicit-explicit midpoint scheme for computational micromagnetics. Comput. Math. Appl., 75, 1719–1738) we propose a numerical algorithm for the integration of the nonlinear and time-dependent Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert (LLG) equation, which is unconditionally convergent, formally (almost) second-order in time, and requires the solution of only one linear system per time step. Only the exchange contribution is integrated implicitly in time, while the lower-order contributions like the computationally expensive stray field are treated explicitly in time. Then we extend the scheme to the coupled system of the LLG equation with the eddy current approximation of Maxwell equations. Unlike existing schemes for this system, the new integrator is unconditionally convergent, (almost) second-order in time, and requires the solution of only two linear systems per time step