Energetics of interacting magnetized domains - art. no. 056230

Many of the pattern forming features of ferrofluids, lipid monolayers, type -I superconductors, and magnetic bubbles can be understood by treating them as dipolar (uniformly magnetized or polarized) domains. Here, we investiga te the early stages of pattern formation in a system consisting of two quas i-two-dimensional dipolar domains, We calculate the linearized interaction energy for these domains and find that the lowest energy states are those f or which each drop has an indentation directed toward the other. These theo retically preferred states compare favorably with results of experiments pe rformed with ferrofluids.