On the Inertia of Oscillating Ferromagnetic Domain Walls

Abstract

It is shown that the inertia of an oscillating ferromagnetic domain wall can be calculated without making any assumptions with regard to the damping mechanism. Physical considerations other than damping are used to formulate appropriate approximations. The particular distribution of spin orientations in an oscillating wall is discussed, and the possibility of dynamic interactions between domain rotations and the wall displacement is pointed out. The inertia of a wall in periodic motion is found to agree with that obtained by Döring for the special case of uniform motion. It is concluded that the inertia depends solely on characteristics of the wall at rest, provided the distortion of the moving wall is sufficiently small to insure the linearity of the equation of motion.