Was Néel's work dismissed by some physicists?
There were certainly those who were deeply entrenched in the established understanding of ferromagnetism. Introducing concepts like antiferromagnetism, where the macroscopic magnetic moment can be zero, was a significant departure. My theories, particularly on ferrimagnetism, initially faced skepticism because they described materials with complex magnetic structures. However, the experimental evidence, especially for materials like nickel ferrite, eventually became undeniable. The success of the molecular field in explaining a wide range of magnetic behaviors, from Curie temperatures to susceptibility, ultimately demonstrated the validity of these new ideas.
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