The abbreviation 'ANNNI model' stands for 'Axial Next-Nearest Neighbor Ising model'. It is a highly cited variant of one of the best known models in
statistical physics, the
Ising model. In that variant,
exchange interactions are coupling
spins at nearest and next-nearest neighbor sites, along one of the crystallographic axes of the
lattice. The model is describing in a prototypical fashion fascinating and complicated spatially modulated magnetic
superstructures in
crystals.
The model was introduced in 1961 by (
Sir) Roger Elliott from the
University of Oxford, but only several years later, many of its intriguing properties had been analyzed and established (especially by
Per Bak,
Michael E. Fisher, Walter Selke, and Jacques Villain), providing a theoretical basis for understanding numerous experimental observations on
commensurate and
incommensurate structures, as
well as accompanying
phase transitions, in
magnets,
alloys, and other
solids.
References
★
Infininitely many commensurate phases in a simple Ising model, M.E. Fisher and W. Selke, , , Phys. Rev. Lett.,
★
Commensurate phases, incommensurate phases, and the devil's staircase, P. Bak, , , Reports on Progress in Physics,
★
The ANNNI model, W. Selke, , , Physics Reports,