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arXiv:1511.03031

A brief account of the Ising and Ising-like models: Mean-field, effective-field and exact results

Jozef Strečka, M. Jaščur

Published Nov 10, 2015• 45 citations
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Abstract

The article provides a tutorial review on how to treat Ising models within mean-field (MF), effective-field (EF) and exact methods. MF solutions of the spin-1 Blume-Capel (BC) model and the mixed-spin Ising model demonstrate a change of continuous phase transitions to discontinuous ones at a tricritical point. A quantum phase transition of the spin-S Ising model driven by a transverse field is explored within MF method. EF theory is elaborated within a single- and two-spin cluster approach to demonstrate an efficiency of this approximate method. The long-standing problem of this method concerned with a self-consistent determination of the free energy is addressed. EF theory is adapted for the spin-1/2 Ising model, the spin-S BC model and the transverse Ising model. The particular attention is paid to continuous and discontinuous transitions. Exact results for the spin-1/2 Ising chain, spin-1 BC chain and mixed-spin Ising chain are obtained using the transfer-matrix method, the crucial steps of which are reviewed for a spin-1/2 Ising square lattice. Critical points of the spin-1/2 Ising model on several lattices are rigorously obtained with the help of dual, star-triangle and decoration-iteration transformations. Mapping transformations are adapted to obtain exact results for the mixed-spin Ising model on planar lattices. An increase in the coordination number of the mixed-spin Ising model on decorated planar lattices gives rise to reentrant transitions, while the critical temperature of the mixed-spin Ising model on a regular honeycomb lattice is always greater than that of two semi-regular archimedean lattices. The effect of selective site dilution of the mixed-spin Ising model on a honeycomb lattice upon phase diagrams is examined. The review affords a brief account of the Ising models solved within MF, EF and exact methods along with a few comments on their future applicability.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1511.03031

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The article provides a tutorial review on how to treat Ising models within mean-field (MF), effective-field (EF) and exact methods. MF solutions of the spin-1 Blume-Capel (BC) model and the mixed-spin Ising model demonstrate a change of continuous phase transitions to discontinuous ones at a tricritical point. A quantum phase transition of the spin-S Ising model driven by a transverse field is explored within MF method. EF theory is elaborated within a single- and two-spin cluster approach to demonstrate an efficiency of this approximate method. The long-standing problem of this method concerned with a self-consistent determination of the free energy is addressed. EF theory is adapted for the spin-1/2 Ising model, the spin-S BC model and the transverse Ising model. The particular attention is paid to continuous and discontinuous transitions. Exact results for the spin-1/2 Ising chain, spin-1 BC chain and mixed-spin Ising chain are obtained using the transfer-matrix method, the crucial steps of which are reviewed for a spin-1/2 Ising square lattice. Critical points of the spin-1/2 Ising model on several lattices are rigorously obtained with the help of dual, star-triangle and decoration-iteration transformations. Mapping transformations are adapted to obtain exact results for the mixed-spin Ising model on planar lattices. An increase in the coordination number of the mixed-spin Ising model on decorated planar lattices gives rise to reentrant transitions, while the critical temperature of the mixed-spin Ising model on a regular honeycomb lattice is always greater than that of two semi-regular archimedean lattices. The effect of selective site dilution of the mixed-spin Ising model on a honeycomb lattice upon phase diagrams is examined. The review affords a brief account of the Ising models solved within MF, EF and exact methods along with a few comments on their future applicability.
Site diluted spin-1/2 Ising and spin-1 Blume Capel (BC) models in the presence of transverse field interactions are examined by introducing an effective-field approximation that takes into account the multi-site correlations in the cluster of a considered lattice with an improved configurational averaging technique. The critical concentration below which the transition temperature reduces to zero is determined for both models, and the estimated values are compared with those obtained by the other methods in the literature. It is found that diluting the lattice sites by non magnetic atoms may cause some drastic changes on some of the characteristic features of the model. Particular attention has been paid on the global phase diagrams of a spin-1 BC model, and it has also been shown that the conditions for the occurrence of a second order reentrance in the system is rather complicated, since the existence or extinction of reentrance is rather sensitive to the competing effects between D/J, Ω/J and c.
We investigate the ground-state and finite-temperature properties of a mixed spin-1/2 and spin-1 Ising model on a decorated square (Lieb) lattice incorporating a uniaxial single-ion anisotropy and magnetic field. By employing the generalized decoration-iteration transformation, the model is mapped exactly onto an effective spin-1/2 Ising model on the square lattice characterized by an effective nearest-neighbor interaction and an effective field. The studied model consequently becomes exactly solvable even for finite values of the applied magnetic field whenever the effective field vanishes. The ground-state analysis reveals three distinct phases: ferrimagnetic phase (FRI), disordered phase (DP), and ferromagnetic (FM) phase. The ground-state boundary between FRI and DP phases gives rise to a dome-shaped surface of discontinuous thermal phase transitions, which is terminated by a line of Ising-type critical points associated with continuous thermal phase transitions. Both continuous and discontinuous thermal phase transitions belong to the exactly solvable parameter regime defined by a vanishing effective field in spite of the fact that the applied magnetic field is finite. Two consecutive discontinuous thermally-induced reentrant phase transitions DP-FRI-DP are identified in a narrow parameter region. The exact analytical predictions including reentrance, field- and thermally-driven phase transitions are independently verified by classical Monte Carlo simulations.
The thermodynamic properties of the spin S=3/2 ferromagnetic Ising model in the presence of transverse and longitudinal crystal fields (equivalent to the Blume-Capel model with a transverse crystal field) have been studied by using two different approaches: (i) a zero-temperature mapping of the system onto a spin-1/2 quantum Ising model in longitudinal and transverse fields, together with time-independent quantum perturbation theory; and (ii) a standard mean-field approximation within the framework of the Bogoliubov inequality for the free energy. A very rich phase diagram, with different kinds of multicritical behavior, has been obtained. The results show first- and second-order transition lines, tricritical and tetracritical points, critical end points with a two-phase coexistence, double critical end points, and also double noncritical end points. Additionally, the behavior of the magnetization as a function of temperature, over a wide range of values of both longitudinal and transverse crystal fields, has also been analyzed in detail. While large magnitudes of the longitudinal crystal field select the z-spin components either in their states ±3/2 or ±1/2, it is surprising that a large transverse crystal field induces the spin component in the z direction to values ±1, which are completely different from any expected natural component. This comes indeed as a result of the zero-temperature mapping of the ground state with the superposition of the states 3/2 and -1/2, in one sector of the Hilbert space, and the states -3/2 and 1/2 on the other disjoint sector of the Hilbert space. This superposition for a large transverse crystal field prevails even for finite temperatures, implying that the exact critical points are obtained for the model on the one-dimensional lattice and the two-dimensional square lattice, and quite accurate estimates can be achieved for the three-dimensional simple cubic lattice.
A cluster mean-field method is introduced and the applications to the Ising and Heisenberg models are demonstrated. We divide the lattice sites into clusters whose size and shape are selected so that the equivalence of all sites in a cluster is preserved. Since the strength of interactions of a cluster with its surrounding clusters is strongly dependent on the spin configuration of the central cluster itself, we include this contribution in the effective fields acting on the spins. The effects of ``correlations'' between clusters can be taken into account beyond the standard mean-field level and as a result our cluster-based method gives qualitatively (and even quantitatively) correct results for the both Ising and Heisenberg models. Especially, for the Ising model on the honeycomb and square lattices, the calculated results of the critical temperature are very close (overestimated by only less than 5%) to the exact values.
The spin-5/2 Blume–Capel model was studied using the mean-field approximation and the Migdal–Kadanoff renormalization group method for two- and three-dimensional systems. We determined the phase diagrams in the (crystal field, temperature) plane where the system exhibited first- and second-order phase transitions as well as isolated critical, bicritical and triple points. In order to show first-order transitions at low temperature, we presented the total magnetization per site and the derivative of the free energy as a function of the crystal field. Moreover, the critical exponents of the system were calculated by linearizing the renormalization transformation at the vicinity of the second-order fixed points.