Magnetic Fields of Twistors Represented by Confocal Hollow Prolate Spheroids

A twistor is an anisotropic ferromagnetic cylindrical wire with nonmagnetic core. The intrinsic magnetization flux curls in helical sense in the wire and has an air return path. Many field problems must be solved for their successful use as information storage elements. For instance, the demagnetizing field in the wire causes instability of storage and therefore must be reduced by suitable geometry of the twistor. The flux lines emanating from a bit link neighboring windings and also impose a magnetic field intensity in neighboring bits. The interactions, although undesirable in packing bits in a memory array, can be used to advantage as operating forces in logical devices.1 This paper analyzes the demagnetizing field in a twistor bit, based on the geometrical model of a confocal hollow prolate spheroid and the magnetic characterization of the material by B = μ
₀
(H+M) where M is the intrinsic magnetization, constant in magnitude, but oriented by the external field. Demagnetizing factors for confocal hollow prolate spheroids are plotted against length-to-diameter ratio and wall thickness. Expressions for field intensities outside a twistor bit are given. Analogies between twistors and thin films are examined.