Scaling in Modulated Systems

How can we understand a system that is too complicated to be simulated and in which some important quantities cannot be determined from observation? This is a question we were confronted with when we analyzed experimentally observed magnetic patterns in ultrathin ferromagnetic films. We have now, for this specific case, found a method that gives a good qualitative understanding of a surprising reentrance of order observed experimentally. This method is based on scaling arguments and may prove useful in the study of other complex systems.