Abstract
A recent analogy between stripe domain structures of uniaxial magnetic garnet films and smectic liquid crystals is extended, using general energetic and symmetry considerations. The analogy is furthermore strengthened by remarking that the growth of magnetized stripes in a magnetic film is similar to the swelling of lyotropic smectic liquid crystals occurring under changes of water or oil concentrations. This sheds new light on the stripe→bubble transition occurring as the magnetic field is raised, which appears as a "peristaltic" unstability in the smectic language. Several consequences, relevant for experiments, are discussed

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