Normalization factors for magnetic relaxation of small-particle systems in a nonzero magnetic field

We critically discuss relaxation experiments in magnetic systems that can be characterized in terms of an energy barrier distribution, showing that proper normalization of the relaxation data is needed whenever curves corresponding to different temperatures are to be compared. We show how these normalization factors can be obtained from experimental data by using the Tln (t/${\mathrm{\tau }}_0$) scaling method without making any assumptions about the nature of the energy barrier distribution. The validity of the procedure is tested using a ferrofluid of ${\mathrm{Fe}}_3$ ${\mathrm{O}}_4$ particles.