Simulation of the magnetization dynamics of diluted ferrofluids in medical applications

Abstract Ferrofluids, which are stable, colloidal suspensions of single-domain magnetic nanoparticles, have a large impact on medical technologies like magnetic particle imaging (MPI), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and hyperthermia. Here, computer simulations promise to improve our understanding of the versatile magnetization dynamics of diluted ferrofluids. A detailed algorithmic introduction into the simulation of diluted ferrofluids will be presented. The algorithm is based on Langevin equations and resolves the internal and the external rotation of the magnetic moment of the nanoparticles, i.e., the Néel and Brown diffusion. The derived set of stochastic differential equations are solved by a combination of an Euler and a Heun integrator and tested with respect to Boltzmann statistics.