The phenomenology of magnetic-field stimulated defect reactions in non-magnetic solids was developed on the basis of the concept of defect-induced lattice magnetism associated with a rise in spontaneous orbital currents in the elastic strain-field produced by a defect. The hierarchy of all magnetic symmetry classes corresponding to the current structures, with long-range or short-range orbital antiferromagnetic order depending upon the perfect crystal symmetry and the symmetry of the defect-induced strain-field, was presented. This strain field could result in a confinement of orbital currents and gave rise to size-quantized orbital magnon excitations. An external magnetic field led to the splitting of magnon levels and caused the transitions between some of the intersecting Zeeman sub-levels. The excitation of orbital magnon from the discrete size-quantized level into the continuous spectrum could be considered as the principal stage of magnetic field stimulated defect reactions. One could consider the defect-induced lattice magnetism phenomenology as a contribution to a new field of solid state physics which could be termed the spin chemistry of solids.

Defect-Induced Lattice Magnetism - Phenomenology of Magnetic-Field-Stimulated Defect Reactions in Non-Magnetic Solids. V.I.Belyavsky, M.N.Levin, N.J.Olson: Physical Review B, 2006, 73[5], 054429 (9pp)