With decreasing particle size, different mechanisms dominate the thermally
activated magnetization reversal in ferromagnetic particles. We investigate
some of these mechanisms for the case of a classical Heisenberg spin chain
driven by an external magnetic field. For sufficiently small system size t
he magnetic moments rotate coherently. With increasing size a crossover to
a reversal due to soliton-antisoliton nucleation sets in. For even larger s
ystems many of these soliton-antisoliton pairs nucleate at the same time. T
hese effects give rise to a complex size dependence of the energy barriers
and characteristic time scales of the relaxation. We study these quantities
using Monte Carlo simulations as well as a direct integration of the Landa
u-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation of motion with Langevin dynamics and we compare
our results with asymptotic solutions for the escape rate following from t
he Fokker-Planck equation. Also, we investigate the crossover from coherent
rotation to soliton-antisoliton nucleation and multidroplet nucleation, es
pecially its dependence on the system size, the external field, and the ani
sotropy of the system.