Convergent finite element methods for antiferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic materials

Abstract

We consider the numerical approximation of a continuum model of antiferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic materials. The state of the material is described in terms of two unit-length vector fields, which can be interpreted as the magnetizations averaging the spins of two sublattices. For the static setting, which requires the solution of a constrained energy minimization problem, we introduce a discretization based on first-order finite elements and prove its $\Gamma$-convergence. Then, we propose and analyze two iterative algorithms for the computation of low-energy stationary points. The algorithms are obtained from (semi-)implicit time discretizations of gradient flows of the energy. Finally, we extend the algorithms to the dynamic setting, which consists of a nonlinear system of two Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equations solved by the two fields, and we prove unconditional stability and convergence of the finite element approximations toward a weak solution of the problem. Numerical experiments assess the performance of the algorithms and demonstrate their applicability for the simulation of physical processes involving antiferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic materials.