From Vertices to Vortices in magnetic nanoislands

Recent studies in magnetic nanolithography show that a variety of complex magnetic states emerge as a function of a single magnetic island's aspect ratio. We propose a model which, in addition to fitting experiments, predicts magnetic states with continuous symmetry at particular aspect ratios and reveals a duality between vortex and vertex states. Our model then opens new means of engineering novel types of artificial spin systems, and their application to complex magnetic textures in devices and computing.