Application of the Projected Dynamics Method to an Anisotropic Heisenberg Model

Abstract

The Projected Dynamics method was originally developed to study metastable decay in ferromagnetic discrete spin models. Here, we apply it to a classical, continuous Heisenberg model with anisotropic ferromagnetic interactions, which evolves under a Monte Carlo dynamic. The anisotropy is sufficiently large to allow comparison with the Ising model. We describe the Projected Dynamics method and how to apply it to this continuous-spin system. We also discuss how to extract metastable lifetimes and how to extrapolate from small systems to larger systems.