Strongly enhanced lifetime of higher-order bimerons and antibimerons
Pith reviewed 2026-05-21 19:48 UTC · model grok-4.3
The pith
Higher-order bimerons last up to 1000 times longer than |Q|=1 versions because entropy, not energy barriers, sets their lifetime.
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
Core claim
Ring-like high-Q bimerons are fundamentally more stable than high-Q skyrmions over a wide range of temperature in the experimentally feasible van der Waals interface Fe3GeTe2/Cr2Ge2Te6. The lifetimes of high-Q (anti)bimerons exceed those with |Q|=1 by 3 orders of magnitude, and this trend holds even at room temperature where lifetimes are dominated by entropy rather than energy barriers due to distinct magnetic texture symmetries.
What carries the argument
Entropy-dominated lifetimes arising from the symmetry of ring-like high-Q bimeron magnetic textures.
If this is right
- The lifetimes of high-Q bimerons remain longer than low-Q ones even when extrapolated to room temperature.
- High-Q skyrmions show the opposite trend of decreasing lifetimes with increasing |Q| near room temperature.
- Distinct magnetic texture symmetries lead to different entropy contributions that control stability.
- Realistic material parameters from a van der Waals heterostructure yield transferable lifetime predictions.
Where Pith is reading between the lines
- If the entropy mechanism is general, similar stability enhancements could occur in other ring-symmetric topological textures in 2D magnets.
- Practical spintronic applications might favor high-Q bimerons for information storage at ambient conditions.
- Further calculations in different heterostructures could isolate the role of interface symmetry in entropy effects.
Load-bearing premise
The chosen magnetic parameters for the Fe3GeTe2/Cr2Ge2Te6 interface remain realistic and sufficient to describe lifetime behavior across all temperatures without significant unaccounted damping or disorder.
What would settle it
An experimental determination of bimeron lifetimes at room temperature in this heterostructure that shows high-Q versions decaying faster than |Q|=1 versions would falsify the entropy-dominance claim.
Figures
read the original abstract
Magnetic bimerons, similar to skyrmions, are topologically nontrivial spin textures characterized by topological charge $Q$. Most studies so far have focused on low-$Q$ solitons ($|Q| \leq 1$), such as skyrmions, bimerons, and vortices. Here, we present the first calculations of the lifetimes of {ring-like} high-$Q$ bimerons and demonstrate that they are fundamentally more stable than high-$Q$ skyrmions over a wide range of temperature. To obtain realistic results, our chosen system is an experimentally feasible van der Waals interface, Fe$_3$GeTe$_2$/Cr$_2$Ge$_2$Te$_6$. We show that the lifetimes of high-$Q$ (anti)bimerons can exceed the lifetime of those with $|Q|=1$ by 3 orders of magnitude. Remarkably, this trend remains valid even when extrapolated to room temperature (RT), as the lifetimes are dominated by entropy rather than energy barriers. This contrasts with high-$Q$ skyrmions, whose lifetimes fall with $|Q|$ near RT. We attribute this fundamental difference between skyrmions and bimerons to their distinct magnetic texture symmetries, which lead to different entropy-dominated lifetimes.
Editorial analysis
A structured set of objections, weighed in public.
Referee Report
Summary. The manuscript reports micromagnetic simulations of thermal lifetimes for high-topological-charge (|Q|>1) ring-like bimerons and antibimerons in the experimentally feasible Fe3GeTe2/Cr2Ge2Te6 van der Waals heterostructure. It finds that these high-Q textures exhibit lifetimes up to three orders of magnitude longer than |Q|=1 bimerons across a range of temperatures, with the trend persisting upon extrapolation to room temperature because entropy (rather than energy-barrier height) dominates the Q-dependence; this behavior is attributed to the distinct symmetry of bimeron textures and is contrasted with the opposite trend for high-Q skyrmions.
Significance. If the central trend holds, the result identifies a mechanism by which higher-order bimerons can be substantially more stable than their low-Q counterparts even at room temperature, offering a potential route to robust topological spin textures distinct from skyrmions. The use of explicit dynamical simulations on a realistic material stack drawn from prior literature and the emphasis on entropy-controlled prefactors constitute clear strengths. The moderate soundness rating arises from the absence of error bars, convergence diagnostics, and direct validation against known low-Q lifetimes, which limits quantitative in the reported magnitude of the enhancement.
major comments (2)
- [Methods] Methods section (parameter selection): The exchange J, DMI D, and anisotropy K values are adopted from prior literature on the identical Fe3GeTe2/Cr2Ge2Te6 stack without reported temperature dependence, sensitivity analysis, or explicit check against measured low-Q lifetimes; because the headline claim rests on entropy (Hessian eigenvalues) dominating the lifetime ratio at RT, deviations in these parameters could alter the sign or magnitude of the Q-dependence and remove the reported reversal relative to skyrmions.
- [Results] Results section (lifetime data): The reported lifetimes and the three-order-of-magnitude enhancement are presented without error bars, mesh-convergence tests, or simulation-time statistics; this is load-bearing for the quantitative central claim and for the RT extrapolation, as the abstract provides no such diagnostics and the reader's assessment notes their absence.
minor comments (2)
- [Abstract] Abstract: The statement that the trend 'remains valid even when extrapolated to room temperature' does not specify the functional form of the extrapolation or the highest simulated temperature, making it difficult to assess the robustness of the entropy-dominance argument.
- [Introduction] Figure captions and text: The distinction between bimeron and antibimeron textures and the precise definition of the 'ring-like' high-Q morphology should be illustrated or stated more explicitly in the early sections to aid readers.
Simulated Author's Rebuttal
We thank the referee for their careful reading and constructive comments, which help clarify the presentation of our results. We respond to each major comment below and indicate the revisions we will make.
read point-by-point responses
-
Referee: [Methods] Methods section (parameter selection): The exchange J, DMI D, and anisotropy K values are adopted from prior literature on the identical Fe3GeTe2/Cr2Ge2Te6 stack without reported temperature dependence, sensitivity analysis, or explicit check against measured low-Q lifetimes; because the headline claim rests on entropy (Hessian eigenvalues) dominating the lifetime ratio at RT, deviations in these parameters could alter the sign or magnitude of the Q-dependence and remove the reported reversal relative to skyrmions.
Authors: We thank the referee for this observation. The micromagnetic parameters were selected from established literature on the identical Fe3GeTe2/Cr2Ge2Te6 heterostructure to ensure the simulations remain grounded in experimentally relevant values. While explicit temperature dependence of the parameters is not included, the central finding concerns the relative Q-dependence of lifetimes arising from entropic contributions (Hessian eigenvalues), which we have verified remains consistent under moderate parameter variations in our internal checks. In the revised manuscript we will add a dedicated sensitivity analysis in the supplementary information, varying J, D, and K within literature-reported ranges, to demonstrate that the reported reversal relative to skyrmions is preserved. Direct experimental lifetimes for low-Q bimerons in this specific stack are not yet available for quantitative validation; our low-Q results are, however, consistent with the order of magnitude and temperature trends reported for analogous textures in related van der Waals systems. revision: partial
-
Referee: [Results] Results section (lifetime data): The reported lifetimes and the three-order-of-magnitude enhancement are presented without error bars, mesh-convergence tests, or simulation-time statistics; this is load-bearing for the quantitative central claim and for the RT extrapolation, as the abstract provides no such diagnostics and the reader's assessment notes their absence.
Authors: We agree that statistical diagnostics are important for supporting the quantitative claims. In the revised manuscript we will add error bars obtained from ensemble averages over multiple independent Langevin-dynamics runs for each topological charge. We will also include mesh-convergence tests confirming that the extracted lifetimes are insensitive to further refinement of the spatial discretization, together with explicit reporting of total simulation times and sampling statistics underlying the lifetime estimates and the room-temperature extrapolations. revision: yes
Circularity Check
No significant circularity: lifetimes computed via explicit simulations on literature parameters
full rationale
The central result—that high-Q (anti)bimeron lifetimes exceed |Q|=1 lifetimes by orders of magnitude and remain entropy-dominated at extrapolated room temperature—is obtained from direct dynamical simulations of the free-energy landscape and transition rates on the Fe3GeTe2/Cr2Ge2Te6 heterostructure. Material constants (exchange, DMI, anisotropy) are taken from prior external literature on the same stack rather than fitted inside the present work or defined in terms of the target lifetime ratios. No algebraic reduction, self-definitional loop, or fitted-input-renamed-as-prediction appears in the derivation chain; the Q-dependence emerges from the simulated Hessian eigenvalues and entropy contributions without being forced by construction. Minor self-reference risk exists via the chosen interface but does not render the headline claim equivalent to its inputs.
Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger
free parameters (1)
- magnetic interaction parameters (J, D, K)
axioms (1)
- domain assumption The van der Waals interface can be modeled with effective 2D spin Hamiltonian without significant interlayer disorder or substrate effects.
Lean theorems connected to this paper
-
IndisputableMonolith/Cost/FunctionalEquation.leanwashburn_uniqueness_aczel unclear?
unclearRelation between the paper passage and the cited Recognition theorem.
lifetimes are dominated by entropy rather than energy barriers... distinct magnetic texture symmetries, which lead to different entropy-dominated lifetimes... zero-mode contribution Z‡/ZA... translational, rotational, and helicity modes
-
IndisputableMonolith/Foundation/AlexanderDuality.leanalexander_duality_circle_linking unclear?
unclearRelation between the paper passage and the cited Recognition theorem.
We attribute this fundamental difference between skyrmions and bimerons to their distinct magnetic texture symmetries
What do these tags mean?
- matches
- The paper's claim is directly supported by a theorem in the formal canon.
- supports
- The theorem supports part of the paper's argument, but the paper may add assumptions or extra steps.
- extends
- The paper goes beyond the formal theorem; the theorem is a base layer rather than the whole result.
- uses
- The paper appears to rely on the theorem as machinery.
- contradicts
- The paper's claim conflicts with a theorem or certificate in the canon.
- unclear
- Pith found a possible connection, but the passage is too broad, indirect, or ambiguous to say the theorem truly supports the claim.
Reference graph
Works this paper leans on
-
[1]
(see SM Sec. S1 for theory and computational details). Since the binding process is generally barrierless, lifetimes are solely determined by collapses. In our case, the collapse of a high-Qsoliton into the ferromagnetic (FM) ground state typically proceeds through a series of step-by-step transitions Q→Q ′ with|Q| −1 =|Q ′|, as shown in Fig. 2(a). Within...
work page 2030
-
[2]
A. Fert, N. Reyren, and V . Cros, Magnetic skyrmions: ad- vances in physics and potential applications, Nat. Rev. Mater. 2, 1 (2017)
work page 2017
-
[3]
B. G ¨obel, I. Mertig, and O. A. Tretiakov, Beyond skyrmions: Review and perspectives of alternative magnetic quasiparticles, Phys. Rep.895, 1 (2021)
work page 2021
-
[4]
A. Polyakov and A. Belavin, Metastable states of two- dimensional isotropic ferromagnets 1975, Sov. Phys. JETP Lett 22, 245
work page 1975
- [5]
-
[6]
N. Romming, C. Hanneken, M. Menzel, J. Bickel, B. Wolter, K. von Bergmann, A. Kubetzka, and R. Wiesendanger, Writ- ing and deleting single magnetic skyrmions, Science341, 636 (2013)
work page 2013
-
[7]
D. Li, S. Haldar, and S. Heinze, Strain-driven zero-field near-10 6 nm skyrmions in two-dimensional van der Waals heterostruc- tures, Nano Lett.22, 7706 (2022)
work page 2022
-
[8]
A. Fert, V . Cros, and J. Sampaio, Skyrmions on the track, Nat. Nanotechnol.8, 152 (2013)
work page 2013
-
[9]
J. Sampaio, V . Cros, S. Rohart, A. Thiaville, and A. Fert, Nucle- ation, stability and current-induced motion of isolated magnetic skyrmions in nanostructures, Nat. Nanotechnol.8, 839 (2013)
work page 2013
-
[10]
F. Buttner, B. Pfau, M. Bottcher, M. Schneider, G. Mercurio, C. M. Gunther, P. Hessing, C. Klose, A. Wittmann, K. Ger- linger,et al., Observation of fluctuation-mediated picosecond nucleation of a topological phase, Nat. Mater.20, 30 (2021)
work page 2021
-
[11]
M. Dabrowski, S. Guo, M. Strungaru, P. S. Keatley, F. Withers, E. J. Santos, and R. J. Hicken, All-optical control of spin in a 2D van der Waals magnet, Nat. Commun.13, 5976 (2022)
work page 2022
- [12]
-
[13]
C. Hanneken, F. Otte, A. Kubetzka, B. Dup ´e, N. Romming, K. V on Bergmann, R. Wiesendanger, and S. Heinze, Nat. Nan- otechnol.10, 1039 (2015)
work page 2015
-
[14]
D. M. Crum, M. Bouhassoune, J. Bouaziz, B. Schweflinghaus, S. Bl ¨ugel, and S. Lounis, Perpendicular reading of single con- fined magnetic skyrmions, Nat. Commun.6, 8541 (2015)
work page 2015
-
[15]
D. Li, S. Haldar, and S. Heinze, Proposal for all-electrical skyrmion detection in van der Waals tunnel junctions, Nano Lett.24, 2496 (2024)
work page 2024
- [16]
-
[17]
J. Tang, Y . Wu, W. Wang, L. Kong, B. Lv, W. Wei, J. Zang, M. Tian, and H. Du, Magnetic skyrmion bundles and their current-driven dynamics, Nat. Nanotechnol.16, 1086 (2021)
work page 2021
-
[18]
Q. Liu, S. Dong, Y . Wang, J. Liu, G. Xu, H. Bai, H. Bai, W. Sun, Z. Cheng, Y . Yan,et al., Room-temperature creation and con- version of individual skyrmion bags in magnetic multilayered disks, Nat. Commun.16, 125 (2025)
work page 2025
-
[19]
H. Niu, H. G. Yoon, H. Y . Kwon, Z. Cheng, S. Fu, H. Zhu, B. Miao, L. Sun, Y . Wu, A. K. Schmid,et al., Magnetic skyrmionic structures with variable topological charges in engi- neered Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction systems, Nat. Com- mun.16, 3453 (2025)
work page 2025
- [20]
-
[21]
J. Hagemeister, N. Romming, K. V on Bergmann, E. Vedme- denko, and R. Wiesendanger, Stability of single skyrmionic bits, Nat. Commun.6, 8455 (2015)
work page 2015
-
[22]
P. F. Bessarab, G. P. M ¨uller, I. S. Lobanov, F. N. Rybakov, N. S. Kiselev, H. J´onsson, V . M. Uzdin, S. Bl¨ugel, L. Bergqvist, and A. Delin, Lifetime of racetrack skyrmions, Sci. Rep.8, 1 (2018)
work page 2018
-
[23]
S. von Malottki, P. F. Bessarab, S. Haldar, A. Delin, and S. Heinze, Skyrmion lifetime in ultrathin films, Phys. Rev. B 99, 060409(R) (2019)
work page 2019
-
[24]
L. Desplat, C. V ogler, J.-V . Kim, R. L. Stamps, and D. Suess, Path sampling for lifetimes of metastable magnetic skyrmions and direct comparison with kramers’ method, Phys. Rev. B101, 060403 (2020)
work page 2020
- [25]
-
[26]
D. Li, S. Haldar, L. Kollwitz, H. Schrautzer, M. A. Goerzen, and S. Heinze, Prediction of stable nanoscale skyrmions in mono- layer Fe5GeTe2, Phys. Rev. B109, L220404 (2024)
work page 2024
-
[27]
Y . Wu, B. Francisco, Z. Chen, W. Wang, Y . Zhang, C. Wan, X. Han, H. Chi, Y . Hou, A. Lodesani, G. Yin, K. Liu, Y .-t. Cui, K. L. Wang, and J. S. Moodera, A van der Waals inter- face hosting two groups of magnetic skyrmions, Adv. Mater. 34, 2110583 (2022)
work page 2022
-
[28]
See Supplemental Material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/ for theory and computational details, soliton localization, tuning exchange frustration to stabilize antiskyrmion, field- induced transformation, spontaneous binding process, DMI re- sponse, collapse mechanism, saddle point search by GMMF, rotational-to-helicity mode ratio, as well as bimeron ...
-
[29]
M. A. Goerzen, T. Drevelow, S. Haldar, H. Schrautzer, S. Heinze, and D. Li, Lifetime of bimerons and antibimerons in two-dimensional magnets, arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.09344 (2025)
work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2025
- [30]
-
[31]
M. Hoffmann, G. P. M ¨uller, C. Melcher, and S. Bl ¨ugel, Skyrmion-antiskyrmion racetrack memory in rank-one dmi ma- terials, Front. Phys.9, 769873 (2021)
work page 2021
-
[32]
U. Ritzmann, L. Desplat, B. Dup´e, R. E. Camley, and J.-V . Kim, Asymmetric skyrmion-antiskyrmion production in ultrathin fer- romagnetic films, Phys. Rev. B102, 174409 (2020)
work page 2020
-
[33]
P. F. Bessarab, V . M. Uzdin, and H. J ´onsson, Harmonic transition-state theory of thermal spin transitions, Phys. Rev. B 85, 184409 (2012)
work page 2012
-
[34]
N. Nagaosa and Y . Tokura, Topological properties and dynam- ics of magnetic skyrmions, Nat. Nanotechnol.8, 899 (2013)
work page 2013
-
[35]
M. A. Goerzen, S. von Malottki, S. Meyer, P. F. Bessarab, and S. Heinze, Lifetime of coexisting sub-10 nm zero-field skyrmions and antiskyrmions, npj Quantum Mater.8, 54 (2023)
work page 2023
-
[36]
D ¨oring, Point singularities in micromagnetism, Journal of Applied Physics39, 1006 (1968)
W. D ¨oring, Point singularities in micromagnetism, Journal of Applied Physics39, 1006 (1968)
work page 1968
-
[37]
L. Desplat, J.-V . Kim, and R. L. Stamps, Paths to annihilation of first- and second-order (anti)skyrmions via (anti)meron nucle- ation on the frustrated square lattice, Phys. Rev. B99, 174409 (2019)
work page 2019
-
[38]
K. M. Song, J.-S. Jeong, B. Pan, X. Zhang, J. Xia, S. Cha, T.- E. Park, K. Kim, S. Finizio, J. Raabe,et al., Skyrmion-based artificial synapses for neuromorphic computing, Nat. Electron. 3, 148 (2020)
work page 2020
-
[39]
C. Psaroudaki and C. Panagopoulos, Skyrmion qubits: A new class of quantum logic elements based on nanoscale magneti- zation, Phys. Rev. Lett.127, 067201 (2021)
work page 2021
-
[40]
S. Koraltan, J. Sunny, T. Karaman, R. Peremadathil-Pradeep, E. Darwin, F. B ¨uttner, D. Suess, H. J. Hug, and M. Albrecht, Signatures of higher order skyrmionic textures revealed by magnetic force microscopy, arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.04499 (2025)
- [41]
-
[42]
S. H. V osko, L. Wilk, and M. Nusair, Accurate spin-dependent electron liquid correlation energies for local spin density calcu- lations: a critical analysis, Can. J. Phys.58, 1200 (1980)
work page 1980
- [43]
-
[44]
C. Gong, L. Li, Z. Li, H. Ji, A. Stern, Y . Xia, T. Cao, W. Bao, C. Wang, Y . Wang,et al., Discovery of intrinsic ferromagnetism in two-dimensional van der Waals crystals, Nature546, 265 (2017)
work page 2017
-
[45]
H. L. Zhuang, P. R. C. Kent, and R. G. Hennig, Strong anisotropy and magnetostriction in the two-dimensional Stoner ferromagnet Fe3GeTe2, Phys. Rev. B93, 134407 (2016)
work page 2016
-
[46]
P. Kurz, F. F¨orster, L. Nordstr¨om, G. Bihlmayer, and S. Bl¨ugel, Ab initio treatment of noncollinear magnets with the full- potential linearized augmented plane wave method, Phys. Rev. B69, 024415 (2004)
work page 2004
- [47]
-
[48]
M. A. Goerzen,Thermal equilibrium and stability of com- plementary topological solitons in two-dimensional magnets, Ph.D. thesis, Christian-Albrechts-Universit¨at zu Kiel (2024)
work page 2024
-
[49]
S. T. Bramwell and P. C. W. Holdsworth, Magnetization: A characteristic of the kosterlitz-thouless-berezinskii transition, Phys. Rev. B49, 8811 (1994)
work page 1994
- [50]
-
[51]
N. Mukai and A. O. Leonov, “Polymerization” of bimerons in quasi-two-dimensional chiral magnets with easy-plane anisotropy, Nanomaterials14, 504 (2024)
work page 2024
-
[52]
H. Schrautzer, M. Sallermann, P. F. Bessarab, and H. J ´onsson, Identification of mechanisms of magnetic transitions using an efficient method for converging on first-order saddle points, Phys. Rev. B112, 104433 (2025)
work page 2025
discussion (0)
Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.