In
classical electromagnetism,
magnetization (
magnetisation in British English) or
magnetic polarization is the
vector field that expresses the
density of permanent or induced
magnetic dipole moments in a magnetic material. The origin of the magnetic moments responsible for magnetization can be either microscopic
electric currents resulting from the motion of
electrons in
atoms, or the
spin of the electrons or the nuclei. Net magnetization results from the response of a material to an external
magnetic field, together with any unbalanced magnetic dipole moments that may be inherent in the material itself; for example, in
ferromagnets. Magnetization is not always uniform within a body, but rather
varies between different points. Magnetization also describes how a material responds to an applied
magnetic field as well as the way the material changes the magnetic field, and can be used to calculate the
forces that result from those interactions. It can be compared to
electric polarization, which is the measure of the corresponding response of a material to an
electric field in
electrostatics. Physicists and engineers define magnetization as the quantity of
magnetic moment per unit volume. It is represented by a vector M.