Bernhard Stiftner

Carl-Martin Pfeiler, Michele Ruggeri, Bernhard Stiftner et al.

We present our open-source Python module Commics for the study of the magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic materials via micromagnetic simulations. It implements state-of-the-art unconditionally convergent finite element methods for the numerical integration of the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation. The implementation is based on the multiphysics finite element software Netgen/NGSolve. The simulation scripts are written in Python, which leads to very readable code and direct access to extensive post-processing. Together with documentation and example scripts, the code is freely available on GitLab.

Giovanni Di Fratta, Carl-Martin Pfeiler, Dirk Praetorius et al.

Combining ideas from [Alouges et al. (Numer. Math., 128, 2014)] and [Praetorius et al. (Comput. Math. Appl., 2017)], we propose a numerical algorithm for the integration of the nonlinear and time-dependent Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation which is unconditionally convergent, formally (almost) second-order in time, and requires only the solution of one linear system per time-step. Only the exchange contribution is integrated implicitly in time, while the lower-order contributions like the computationally expensive stray field are treated explicitly in time. Then, we extend the scheme to the coupled system of the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation with the eddy current approximation of Maxwell equations (ELLG). Unlike existing schemes for this system, the new integrator is unconditionally convergent, (almost) second-order in time, and requires only the solution of two linear systems per time-step.

Gino Hrkac, Carl-Martin Pfeiler, Dirk Praetorius et al.

We consider the numerical approximation of the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation, which describes the dynamics of the magnetization in ferromagnetic materials. In addition to the classical micromagnetic contributions, the energy comprises the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, which is the most important ingredient for the enucleation and the stabilization of chiral magnetic skyrmions. We propose and analyze three tangent plane integrators, for which we prove (unconditional) convergence of the finite element solutions towards a weak solution of the problem. The analysis is constructive and also establishes existence of weak solutions. Numerical experiments demonstrate the applicability of the methods for the simulation of practically relevant problem sizes.

Dirk Praetorius, Michele Ruggeri, Bernhard Stiftner

Based on lowest-order finite elements in space, we consider the numerical integration of the Landau-Lifschitz-Gilbert equation (LLG). The dynamics of LLG is driven by the so-called effective field which usually consists of the exchange field, the external field, and lower-order contributions such as the stray field. The latter requires the solution of an additional partial differential equation in full space. Following Bartels and Prohl (2006) (Convergence of an implicit finite element method for the Landau-Lifschitz-Gilbert equation. SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 44), we employ the implicit midpoint rule to treat the exchange field. However, in order to treat the lower-order terms effectively, we combine the midpoint rule with an explicit Adams-Bashforth scheme. The resulting integrator is formally of second-order in time, and we prove unconditional convergence towards a weak solution of LLG. Numerical experiments underpin the theoretical findings.

Johannes Kraus, Carl-Martin Pfeiler, Dirk Praetorius et al.

The tangent plane scheme is a time-marching scheme for the numerical solution of the nonlinear parabolic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation (LLG), which describes the time evolution of ferromagnetic configurations. Exploiting the geometric structure of LLG, the tangent plane scheme requires only the solution of one linear variational form per time-step, which is posed in the discrete tangent space determined by the nodal values of the current magnetization. We develop an effective solution strategy for the arising constrained linear systems, which is based on appropriate Householder reflections. We derive possible preconditioners, which are (essentially) independent of the time-step, and prove that the preconditioned GMRES algorithm leads to linear convergence. Numerical experiments underpin the theoretical findings.

Gregor Gantner, Alexander Haberl, Dirk Praetorius et al.

We prove convergence with optimal algebraic rates for an adaptive finite element method for nonlinear equations with strongly monotone operator. Unlike prior works, our analysis also includes the iterative and inexact solution of the arising nonlinear systems by means of the Picard iteration. Using nested iteration, we prove, in particular, that the number of of Picard iterations is uniformly bounded in generic cases, and the overall computational cost is (almost) optimal. Numerical experiments confirm the theoretical results.