Title: Mechanics of Ferromagnetic Solitons
Abstract: A soliton, or a solitary wave, is a nonlinear excitation propagating in a medium and maintaining its shape. Topological solitons owe their stability to a nontrivial topology. Magnets host a variety of topological solitons such as domain walls, vortices, hedgehogs and skyrmions. Because of their stability, topological solitons can potentially be used for storing and processing information. The mechanics of magnetic solitons is often surprising and counterintuitive. For example, a domain wall in a ferromagnetic wire rotates when pushed and moves when torqued. I will discuss some basic models of magnetic solitons and describe deep connections to other areas of mechanics.