Barkhausen noise: Elementary signals, power laws, and scaling relations

Abstract

We report extensive measurements, with sufficiently large statistics, of the Barkhausen noise (BN) in the case of the commercial VITROVAC 6025 X metal glass sample. Applying a very scrutinized numerical procedure, we have extracted over one million of the BN elementary signals from the raw experimental data, whereby we made a rather precise estimation of the relevant power law exponents. In conjunction with the experimental part of the work, we have recognized a generic shape of a single BN elementary signal (BNES), and we have put forward, without invoking any existing model of BN, a simple mathematical expression for BNES. Using the proposed expression for BNES in a statistical analysis, we have been able to predict scaling relations and an elaborate formula for the power spectrum. We have also obtained these predictions within the generalized homogeneous function approach to the BNES’s probability distribution function, which we have substantiated by the corresponding data collapsing analysis. Finally, we compare all our findings with results obtained within the current experimental and theoretical research of BN. © 1996 The American Physical Society.