In the 2-dimensional anisotropic Heisenberg model with XY-symmetry there are
non-planar vortices which exhibit a localized structure of the z-components of
the spins around the vortex center. We study how thermal noise induces a
transition of this structure from one polarization to the opposite one. We
describe the vortex core by a discrete Hamiltonian and consider a stationary
solution of the Fokker-Planck equation. We find a bimodal distribution function
and calculate the transition rate using Langer's instanton theory (1969). The
result is compared with Langevin dynamics simulations for the full many-spin
model.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, Phys. Rev. B., in pres