Renormalized Gaussian approach to size effects and exchange interactions: Application to localized ferromagnets and amorphous magnets

Abstract This paper gives a model field-theoretic description of thermodynamic magnetization fluctuations and exchange interactions in localized ferromagnets and amorphous magnets. A local Ginzburg-Landau type Hamiltonian is used to describe the properties observed in the transition region. The approach provides another method of tackling interacting spin systems dominated by size effects, fluctuations and correlations, which lead to a dimensional phenomenology of critical behavior. It is also found that the competition between long- and short-range interactions gives rise to the redistribution of the density of spins and causes the anisotropy of the electron spectrum. Above the upper-critical dimension, the approach behaves like mean-field theory with however, thermodynamic quantities modified by intrinsic critical fluctuations, whereas it predicts correctly the universal quantities for dimension 4 and below. At all temperatures, the model matches the magnetic observables, thus providing a unified picture for both the Gaussian and critical regimes.