ABSTRACT
324Magnetic skyrmions have recently been in the focus of intense worldwide research activities, because they exhibit intriguing properties such as small lateral size and expected high stability due to their topological protection and the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya (DM) interaction energy involved. A broad range of theoretical investigations on magnetic skyrmionic systems have been conducted in the framework of field theory, micromagnetics, or other theoretical approaches based on continuum media. There is also a considerable body of publications on magnetic skyrmions using discrete atomistic simulations or analytical calculations for atomistic models. While both theoretical approaches agree on the basic properties of the skyrmionic systems, there are certain subtleties that make one or another model more preferable for a certain problem. Particularly, the discrete treatment is very important for the interfacial skyrmionic systems in ultrathin magnetic films and for the confined geometries at the nanoscale.
