PHASE-SEPARATION OF MAGNETIC COLLOIDS AND CONCENTRATION DOMAIN PATTERNS

The concept of magnetic condensation as a mechanism of formation of periodic concentration patterns of magnetic colloids is developed. Their characteristics in plane slots have been determined. It has been shown that a family of equilibrium concentration patterns can be found as eigenfunctions of a self-adjoint integro-differential operator. Types of pattern transformation caused by magnetic instabilities of microdrops of the condensed phase have been described. It should be noted that there is an analogy of the dynamics of two-dimensional magnetic pattern formation with diffusion-limited growth processes. The data of numerical experiments indicating a possible formation of fractal magnetic objects are given. © 1990.