^{Addendum H}

Dear Dr. G. Durin and Dr. S. Zapperi,

This is a response to your cond-mat/0404512, 51-page, review article "The Barkhausen effect". The article supplies a reader with lots of experimental observations, statistical treatments, guessing (like the wrong parallel with second-order phase transitions), and vast list of references - except the only one where the phenomenon was explained. This was done in my book "FUNDAMENTALS OF SOLID-STATE PHASE TRANSITIONS, FERROMAGNETISM AND FERROELECTRICITY" published in 2001. You knew about it, and that the Barkhausen effect was considered there, from my e-mail sent to both of you on 10.15.2003.  

Let me explain you the physics of the phenomenon.

1.     First, you should recall how crystals grow from liquids and gases: molecule-by-molecule filling the "kinks" (steps) on a crystallographic plane to complete the layer and then building next layers by the same way - or a cascade of layers simultaneously. The process has been investigated in literature in detail: steps of different height, irregularities, avalanches… - the same as in Barkhausen effect.  

2.     As I discovered in 1966 [Ref. 3, p. XV and 76, p. 319] crystal-crystal phase transitions proceed by rearrangement at interfaces in the very similar way. At that, formation of "kinks" is controlled by nucleation in specific crystal defects. Again, small running steps, larger steps, layer-by-layer growth, irregularities, avalanches, etc., were observed.

3.     According to the fundamentals of ferromagnetism put forward in the book, magnetization is never simply "rotation" ("switching", "reversal") of spins in the crystal, but always resulted from crystal rearrangement at the domain interfaces. Sec. 4.10 in the book is entitled "Barkhausen effect as manifestation of crystal growth".

Isn’t it simple? You could challenge it, but not even mentioning it in a very comprehensive review is not appropriate if you care about scientific truth.

Sincerely, Yuri Mnyukh