Critical hysteresis from random anisotropy

Critical hysteresis in ferromagnets is investigated through a N-component spin model with random anisotropies, more prevalent experimentally than the random fields used in most theoretical studies. Metastability, and the tensorial nature of anisotropy, dictate its physics. Generically, random-field Ising criticality occurs, but other universality classes exist. In particular, proximity to O(N) criticality may explain the discrepancy between experiment and earlier theories. The uniaxial anisotropy constant, which can be controlled in magnetostrictive materials by an applied stress, emerges as a natural tuning parameter.