We numerically test an experimentally realizable method for the extraction of the critical Casimir force based on its thermodynamic definition as the derivative of the excess free energy with respect to system size. Free energy differences are estima
ted for different system sizes by integrating the order parameter along an isotherm. The method could be developed for experiments on magnetic systems and could give access to the critical Casimir force for any universality class. By choosing an applied field that opposes magnetic ordering at the boundaries, the Casimir force is found to increase by an order of magnitude over zero-field results.
The Second Wien Effect describes the non-linear, non-equilibrium response of a weak electrolyte in moderate to high electric fields. Onsagers 1934 electrodiffusion theory along with various extensions has been invoked for systems and phenomena as div
erse as solar cells, surfactant solutions, water splitting reactions, dielectric liquids, electrohydrodynamic flow, water and ice physics, electrical double layers, non-Ohmic conduction in semiconductors and oxide glasses, biochemical nerve response and magnetic monopoles in spin ice. In view of this technological importance and the experimental ubiquity of such phenomena, it is surprising that Onsagers Wien effect has never been studied by numerical simulation. Here we present simulations of a lattice Coulomb gas, treating the widely applicable case of a double equilibrium for free charge generation. We obtain detailed characterisation of the Wien effect and confirm the accuracy of the analytical theories as regards the field evolution of the free charge density and correlations. We also demonstrate that simulations can uncover further corrections, such as how the field-dependent conductivity may be influenced by details of microscopic dynamics. We conclude that lattice simulation offers a powerful means by which to investigate system-specific corrections to the Onsager theory, and thus constitutes a valuable tool for detailed theoretical studies of the numerous practical applications of the Second Wien Effect.
One of the most remarkable examples of emergent quasi-particles, is that of the fractionalization of magnetic dipoles in the low energy configurations of materials known as spin ice, into free and unconfined magnetic monopoles interacting via Coulomb
s 1/r law [Castelnovo et. al., Nature, 451, 42-45 (2008)]. Recent experiments have shown that a Coulomb gas of magnetic charges really does exist at low temperature in these materials and this discovery provides a new perspective on otherwise largely inaccessible phenomenology. In this paper, after a review of the different spin ice models, we present detailed results describing the diffusive dynamics of monopole particles starting both from the dipolar spin ice model and directly from a Coulomb gas within the grand canonical ensemble. The diffusive quasi-particle dynamics of real spin ice materials within quantum tunneling regime is modeled with Metropolis dynamics, with the particles constrained to move along an underlying network of oriented paths, which are classical analogues of the Dirac strings connecting pairs of Dirac monopoles.
Magnetic monopoles have eluded experimental detection since their prediction nearly a century ago by Dirac. Recently it has been shown that classical analogues of these enigmatic particles occur as excitations out of the topological ground state of a
model magnetic system, dipolar spin ice. These quasi-particle excitations do not require a modification of Maxwells equations, but they do interact via Coulombs law and are of magnetic origin. In this paper we present an experimentally measurable signature of monopole dynamics and show that magnetic relaxation measurements in the spin ice material $Dy_{2}Ti_{2}O_{7}$ can be interpreted entirely in terms of the diffusive motion of monopoles in the grand canonical ensemble, constrained by a network of Dirac strings filling the quasi-particle vacuum. In a magnetic field the topology of the network prevents charge flow in the steady state, but there is a monopole density gradient near the surface of an open system.
