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Metamagnetism is a physical state of matter characterized by a superlinear increase of magnetization over a narrow range of applied magnetic field. This property actually describes a few distinct magnetic states. An early use of the term (Advances in Physics 26, 487) referred to a field-induced "spin-flip" transition in antiferromagnetic insulators. Later, it was suggested (Philosophical Magazine 7, 1817) that a similar effect would occur in paramagnets on the verge of ferromagnetism, as the result of exchange splitting of the Fermi surface. Depending on the material and experimental conditions, metamagnetism may be associated with a first-order phase transition, a continuous phase transition at a critical point (classical or quantum), or crossovers beyond a critical point that do not involve a phase transition at all.
