Attraction-driven aggregation of dipolar particles in an external magnetic field

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2011 Jun;83(6 Pt 1):061504. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.83.061504. Epub 2011 Jun 16.

Abstract

We present a detailed experimental study of the aggregation of particles of permanent magnetic moment in an external magnetic field. The experiments are performed with millimeter-sized particles floating on the surface of water. Due to the large size of the particles, thermal noise does not have any relevance in the system; the particles undergo deterministic motion. Experiments are carried out varying the concentration which also controls the relative importance of the dipole-external field and the dipole-dipole interactions. We determined the exponents characterizing the aggregation process and found that the attraction driven aggregation of dipolar particles obeys the Vicsek-Family dynamic scaling. The exponents are found to have a concentration dependence which can be attributed to the change of mobility of clusters and their interaction at higher concentrations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't