36 research outputs found
``Smoke Rings'' in Ferromagnets
It is shown that bulk ferromagnets support propagating non-linear modes that
are analogous to the vortex rings, or ``smoke rings'', of fluid dynamics. These
are circular loops of {\it magnetic} vorticity which travel at constant
velocity parallel to their axis of symmetry. The topological structure of the
continuum theory has important consequences for the properties of these
magnetic vortex rings. One finds that there exists a sequence of magnetic
vortex rings that are distinguished by a topological invariant (the Hopf
invariant). We present analytical and numerical results for the energies,
velocities and structures of propagating magnetic vortex rings in ferromagnetic
materials.Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps-figures, revtex with epsf.tex and multicol.sty. To
appear in Physical Review Letters. (Postscript problem fixed.