A variational approach to ferronematics with a dimension reduction

Abstract

We present a variational approach to ferronematics in a three dimensional setting. The ferronematic energy functional is described by two established theories: the Landau-de Gennes energy to explain the nematic part, the micromagnetic energy to explain the magnetic part, and coupling energies between them. We explicitly include the nonlocal stray field energy in a bulk setting and the coupling energy accounting for the nematic and stray field interaction. We prove the existence of an energy minimizer for the introduced ferronematic energy functional in a bulk setting. We then provide a reduced local ferronematic energy in a two-dimensional setting via $Γ$-convergence.