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Theory and simulations of critical temperatures in CrI3 and other 2D materials: Easy-axis magnetic order and easy-plane Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions

The recent observations of ferromagnetic order in several two-dimensional (2D) materials have generated an enormous interest in the physical mechanisms underlying 2D magnetism. In the present prospective article we show that Density Functional Theory (DFT) combined with either classical Monte Carlo simulations or renormalized spin-wave theory can predict Curie temperatures for ferromagnetic insulators that are in quantitative agreement with experiment. The case of materials with in-plane anisotropy is then discussed and it is argued that finite size effects may lead to observable magnetic order in macroscopic samples even if long range magnetic order is forbidden by the Mermin-Wagner theorem.