title: Model for dynamic self-assembled magnetic surface structures.
abstract: We propose a first-principles model for the dynamic self-assembly of magnetic structures at a water-air interface reported in earlier experiments. The model is based on the Navier-Stokes equation for liquids in shallow water approximation coupled to Newton equations for interacting magnetic particles suspended at a water-air interface. The model reproduces most of the observed phenomenology, including spontaneous formation of magnetic snakelike structures, generation of large-scale vortex flows, complex ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic ordering of the snake, and self-propulsion of bead-snake hybrids.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Belkin
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Glatz
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Snezhko
authors.forename: I S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Aranson