In this paper we develop the Lagrangian and multisymplectic structures of the
Heisenberg magnet (HM) model which are then used as the basis for geometric
discretizations of HM. Despite a topological obstruction to the existence of a
global Lagrangian density, a local variational formulation allows one to derive
local conservation laws using a version of N\"other's theorem from the formal
variational calculus of Gelfand-Dikii. Using the local Lagrangian form we
extend the method of Marsden, Patrick and Schkoller to derive local
multisymplectic discretizations directly from the variational principle. We
employ a version of the finite element method to discretize the space of
sections of the trivial magnetic spin bundle N=M×S2 over an
appropriate space-time M. Since sections do not form a vector space, the
usual FEM bases can be used only locally with coordinate transformations
intervening on element boundaries, and conservation properties are guaranteed
only within an element. We discuss possible ways of circumventing this problem,
including the use of a local version of the method of characteristics,
non-polynomial FEM bases and Lie-group discretization methods.Comment: 12 pages, accepted Math. and Comp. Simul., May 200