In a many-spin approach that takes account of the internal structure,
microscopic interactions and single-site anisotropies, we investigate the
effect of spin non-collinearities induced by the boundary and surface
anisotropy on the behaviour of individual magnetic nanoparticles.
Through analytical and numerical calculations, we show that there are mainly
two regimes separated by some critical value of the surface anisotropy constant
$K_s$ which controls the intensity of spin non-collinearities: i) the so called
Stoner-Wohlfarth or N\'eel-Brown regime of a macrospin undergoing a coherent
switching, ii) the many-spin regime where the strong spin non-collinearities
invalidate the coherent mechanism, and where the particle's magnetic state and
switching mechanisms can no longer be modeled by a macrospin.
For small-to-intermediate values of $K_s$, and within two models of surface
anisotropy (transverse and N\'eel), the behaviour of the nanoparticle can be
modeled by that of a macrospin with an effective potential energy containing a
uniaxial and cubic anisotropy terms. This effective spin model provides a
crossover between the two regimes.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figs, Invited Paper at III Joint European Magnetic
Symposia (JEMS), San Sebastian (Spain), 26-30 June 0