Behavior of μMAG standard problem No. 2 in the small particle limit

For a uniformly magnetized rectangular particle with dimensions in the ratio 5 : 1 : 0.1, the coercive and switching fields in the (1,1,1) direction are determined to be H-c/M-s = 0.057069478 and H-s/M-s = 0.057142805. Previous micromagnetic computations of coercive and switching fields that did not approach these values for small particles are analyzed. It is shown that the disagreement was primarily due to a disparity in the method of calculating demagnetization energy. Corrected simulations are shown to agree with analytically determined values. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)81708-9].