Collective dipole reorganization in magnetostructures

Neodymium spherical magnets are inexpensive objects that demonstrate how dipolar particles self-assemble into various structures ranging from 1D chains to 3D crystals. Assemblies of these magnets are nicknamed magnetostructures and this paper focuses on a variety called magnetotubes, which are some curved square lattices forming cylinders. We experimentally and numerically observe that such magnetotubes can self-buckle, above a critical aspect ratio. In fact, the underlying dipolar ordering of such structures is found to exhibit a collective reorganization, altering the mechanical stability of the entire system. We identify the conditions in which these phenomena occur, and we emphasize that metastable states coexist. This suggests that a wide variety of magnetostructures, including chains and magnetocrystals, may collapse due to the coexistence of multiple ground states and global reorientation of dipoles.