The skyrmion racetrack is a promising concept for future information technology. There, binary bits are carried by nanoscale spin swirls–skyrmions–driven along magnetic strips. Stability of the skyrmions is a critical issue for realising this technology. Here we demonstrate that the racetrack skyrmion lifetime can be calculated from first principles as a function of temperature, magnetic field and track width. Our method combines harmonic transition state theory extended to include Goldstone modes, with an atomistic spin Hamiltonian parametrized from density functional theory calculations. We demonstrate that two annihilation mechanisms contribute to the skyrmion stability: At low external magnetic field, escape through the track boundary prevails, but a crossover field exists, above which the collapse in the interior becomes dominant. Considering a Pd/Fe bilayer on an Ir(111) substrate as a well-established model system, the calculated skyrmion lifetime is found to be consistent with reported experimental measurements. Our simulations also show that the Arrhenius pre-exponential factor of escape depends only weakly on the external magnetic field, whereas the pre-exponential factor for collapse is strongly field dependent. Our results open the door for predictive simulations, free from empirical parameters, to aid the design of skyrmion-based information technology.

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We consider the Schrödinger operator with a periodic potential on quasi-1D models of zigzag single-wall carbon nanotubes. The spectrum of this operator consists of an absolutely continuous part (intervals separated by gaps) plus an infinite number of eigenvalues with infinite multiplicity. We describe all compactly supported eigenfunctions with the same eigenvalue. We define a Lyapunov function, which is analytic on some Riemann surface. On each sheet, the Lyapunov function has the same properties as in the scalar case, but it has branch points, which we call resonances. We prove that all resonances are real. We determine the asymptotics of the periodic and antiperiodic spectrum and of the resonances at high energy. We show that there exist two types of gaps: i) stable gaps, where the endpoints are periodic and anti-periodic eigenvalues, ii) unstable (resonance) gaps, where the endpoints are resonances (i.e., real branch points of the Lyapunov function). We describe all finite gap potentials. We show that the mapping: potential → all eigenvalues is a real analytic isomorphism for some class of potentials.

In this note we investigate the asymptotic behavior of the s-numbers of the resolvent difference of two generalized self-adjoint, maximal dissipative or maximal accumulative Robin Laplacians on a bounded domain Ω with smooth boundary ∂Ω. For this we apply the recently introduced abstract notion of quasi boundary triples and Weyl functions from extension theory of symmetric operators together with Krein type resolvent formulae and well-known eigenvalue asymptotics of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on ∂Ω. It is shown that the resolvent difference of two generalized Robin Laplacians belongs to the Schattenvon Neumann class of any order p for whichMoreover, we also give a simple sufficient condition for the resolvent difference of two generalized Robin Laplacians to belong to a Schatten-von Neumann class of arbitrary small order. Our results extend and complement classical theorems due to M.Š. Birman on Schatten-von Neumann properties of the resolvent differences of Dirichlet, Neumann and self-adjoint Robin Laplacians.

This is not the published version of the article / Þetta er ekki útgefna útgáfa greinarinnar AbstractThe stability of skyrmions in various environments is estimated by analyzing the multidimensional surface describing the energy of the system as a function of the directions of the magnetic moments in the system. The energy is given by a Heisenberg-like Hamiltonian that includes Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, anisotropy and external magnetic field. Local minima on this surface correspond to the ferromagnetic and skyrmion states. Minimum energy paths (MEP) between the minima are calculated using the geodesic nudged elastic band method. The maximum energy along an MEP corresponds to a first order saddle point on the energy surface and gives an estimate of the activation energy for the magnetic transition, such as creation and annihilation of a skyrmion. The pre-exponential factor in the Arrhenius law for the rate, the so-called attempt frequency, is estimated within harmonic transition state theory where the eigenvalues of the Hessian at the saddle point and the local minima are used to characterize the shape of the energy surface. For some degrees of freedom, so-called "zero modes", the energy of the system remains invariant. They need to be treated separately and give rise to temperature dependence of the attempt frequency. As an example application of this general theory, the lifetime of a skyrmion in a track of finite width for a PdFe overlayer on a Ir(111) substrate is calculated as a function of track width and external magnetic field. Also, the effect of non-magnetic impurities is studied. Various MEPs for annihilation inside a track, via the boundary of a track and at an impurity are presented. The attempt frequency as well as the activation energy has been calculated for each mechanism to estimate the transition rate as a function of temperature.

The stability of magnetic skyrmions against thermal fluctuations and external perturbations is investigated within the framework of harmonic transition state theory for magnetic degrees of freedom. The influence of confined geometry and atomic scale non-magnetic defects on the skyrmion lifetime is estimated. It is shown that a skyrmion on a track has lower activation energy for annihilation and higher energy for nucleation if the size of the skyrmion is comparable with the width of the track. Two mechanisms of skyrmion annihilation are considered: inside the track and escape through the boundary. For both mechanisms, the dependence of activation energy on the track width is calculated. Non-magnetic defects are found to localize skyrmions in their neighborhood and strongly decrease the activation energy for creation and annihilation. This is in agreement with experimental measurements that have found nucleation of skyrmions in presence of spin-polarized current preferably occurring near structural defects.

The spectral properties of the quantum mechanical system consisting of a quantum dot with a short-range attractive impurity inside the dot are investigated in the zero-range limit. The Green function of the system is obtained in an explicit form. In the case of a spherically symmetric quantum dot, the dependence of the spectrum on the impurity position and the strength of the impurity potential is analyzed in detail. It is proven that the confinement potential of the dot can be recovered from the spectroscopy data. The consequences of the hidden symmetry breaking by the impurity are considered. The effect of the positional disorder is studied.