SIMULATED ANNEALING OF 3-DIMENSIONAL MICROMAGNETIC STRUCTURES AND SIMULATED THERMOREMANENT MAGNETIZATION

This paper deals with the application of simulated annealing to rock m agnetism. The implementation of the algorithm is discussed in detail. It is shown that the technique can be used to determine stable microma gnetic structures by finding very low energy states which are not easi ly found using other optimization techniques. A modified simulated ann ealing algorithm is used to incorporate thermal fluctuations into a mi cromagnetic model in order to simulate the acquisition of a thermorema nent magnetization (TRM). The results obtained agree with Neel's singl e domain (SD) TRM theory when the magnetization of the model is constr ained to rotate coherently. When this constraint is rernoved, a decrea se in the blocking temperature of the model is observed above almost-e qual-to 0.07 m showin Neel's SD TRM theory to be inaccurate for rains above this size.