Non-uniform forcing of a magnetic soap film

The effects of a non-uniform magnetic field on a suspension of magnetic nanoparticles in a soap film are investigated. Experiments show that a strong non-uniform field will form a two-dimensional structure of magnetic nanoparticles within the soap film. A model is developed to compare with experimental results for several different magnetic field configurations. The system is modeled with a two-dimensional thin film equation with no-flux boundary conditions. We show qualitative agreement between the model and experiments.