Many intriguing dynamical effects in magnetism occur in geometrically confined systems, where the presence of closed boundaries leads to constraints on the magnetic moments. This, coupled with nonlinearity, allows various types of magnetic excitations such as solitons and vortices whose dynamics can be described with topological charges. These nonlinear excitations can also interact with the spin waves
especially important for describing a thermal equilibrium situation in a magnet. These charges may be probed and modified by applied magnetic pulses, and they may exhibit temperature dependencies. Such behaviour allows researchers to control and flip the topological charges at will so that they can be used as data bits. Confined magnetics also offer great promise for creating and manipulating the properties of composite media. Composites of magnetic or metallic particles in some nonmagnetic host material could be used to produce new supermaterials. Another interesting behaviour of confined magnetics is the presence of surface plasmon modes in fine metallic particles, and the interaction of a composite of such particles with electromagnetic radiation. In the book, Gary Wysin provides an overview of some model systems and their behaviour and effects.
Includes bibliographical references.