NUCLEATION OF MAGNETIZATION REVERSAL VIA THE CURLING MODE FOR AN INFINITE CYLINDER

For an infinite ferromagnetic cylinder with exchange, uniaxial anisotropy, demagnetizing field, and an external magnetic field applied along its axis curling-mode solutions to Brown's equation (the static Landau-Lifshitz equation) exist. It is proved that these solutions are unstable, and by analogy to a specific-sized water droplet in a supersaturated vapor for which an unstable equilibrium exists, the solution for a given magnetic field is shown to be the configuration of smallest energy through which magnetization reversal can nucleate in the curling mode.