Inertia in skyrmions confined to one-dimensional geometries

Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions are conventionally attributed to having zero mass. In contrast, we show that skyrmions confined to one-dimensional geometries generically acquire mass (inertia) due to the combined effects of the skyrmion Hall effect and the elasticity of the system. We investigate the massive behavior of the skyrmion for a simplified periodic model of the disorder. We show that skyrmion mass lowers the critical depinning force and leads to a step-like behavior in the skyrmion velocity-vs-current curves, which were recently observed in experiments. Finite mass could also lead to hysteresis in the velocity-vs-current curves.