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arXiv:1610.07861 · Physical review. E

Renormalization-group theory for cooling first-order phase transitions in Potts models

Ning Liang, Fan Zhong

Published Mar 13, 2017• 17 citations
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Abstract

We develop a dynamic field-theoretic renormalization-group (RG) theory for cooling first-order phase transitions in the Potts model. It is suggested that the well-known imaginary fixed points of the q-state Potts model for q>10/3 in the RG theory are the origin of the dynamic scaling found recently from numerical simulations, apart from logarithmic corrections. This indicates that the real and imaginary fixed points of the Potts model are both physical and control the scalings of the continuous and discontinuous phase transitions, respectively, of the model. Our one-loop results for the scaling exponents are already not far away from the numerical results. Further, the scaling exponents depend on q only slightly, consistent with the numerical results. Therefore, the theory is believed to provide a natural explanation of the dynamic scaling including the scaling exponents and their scaling laws for various observables in the cooling first-order phase transition of the Potts model.

DOI
10.1103/physreve.95.032124

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We develop a dynamic field-theoretic renormalization-group (RG) theory for cooling first-order phase transitions in the Potts model. It is suggested that the well-known imaginary fixed points of the q-state Potts model for q>10/3 in the RG theory are the origin of the dynamic scaling found recently from numerical simulations, apart from logarithmic corrections. This indicates that the real and imaginary fixed points of the Potts model are both physical and control the scalings of the continuous and discontinuous phase transitions, respectively, of the model. Our one-loop results for the scaling exponents are already not far away from the numerical results. Further, the scaling exponents depend on q only slightly, consistent with the numerical results. Therefore, the theory is believed to provide a natural explanation of the dynamic scaling including the scaling exponents and their scaling laws for various observables in the cooling first-order phase transition of the Potts model.
Phase transitions are of great importance in a diversity of fields. They are usually classified into continuous phase transitions and first-order phase transitions (FOPTs). Whereas the former has a well-developed theoretical framework of the renormalization-group (RG) theory, no general theory has yet been developed for the latter that appear far more frequently. Focusing on the dynamics of a generic FOPT in the phi4 model below its critical point, we show by a field-theoretic RG method that it is governed by an unexpected unstable fixed point of the corresponding phi3 model. Accordingly, it exhibits a distinct scaling and universality behavior with unstable exponents different from the critical ones.
Through a detailed study of the mean-field approximation, the Gaussian approximation, the perturbation expansion, and the field-theoretic renormalization-group analysis of a φ 3 theory, we show that the instability fixed points of the theory, together with their associated instability exponents, are quite probably relevant to the scaling and universality behavior exhibited by the first-order phase transitions in a field-driven scalar ϕ 4 model, below its critical temperature and near the instability points. Finitetime scaling and leading corrections to the scaling are considered. We also show that the instability exponents of the first-order phase transitions are equivalent to those of the Yang–Lee edge singularity, and employ the latter to improve our estimates of the former. The outcomes agree well with existing numerical results.
We study the scaling and universal behavior of temperature-driven first-order phase transitions in scalar models. These transitions are found to exhibit rich phenomena, though they are controlled by a single complex-conjugate pair of imaginary fixed points of ϕ 3 theory. Scaling theories and renormalization group theories are developed to account for the phenomena, and three universality classes with their own hysteresis exponents are found: a field-like thermal class, a partly thermal class, and a purely thermal class, designated, respectively, as Thermal Classes I, II, and III. The first two classes arise from the opposite limits of the scaling forms proposed and may cross over to each other depending on the temperature sweep rate. They are both described by a massless model and a purely massive model, both of which are equivalent and are derived from ϕ 3 theory via symmetry. Thermal Class III characterizes the cooling transitions in the absence of applied external fields and is described by purely thermal models, which include cases in which the order parameters possess different symmetries and thus exhibit different universality classes. For the purely thermal models whose free energies contain odd-symmetry terms, Thermal Class III emerges only at the mean-field level and is identical to Thermal Class II. Fluctuations change the model into the other two models. Using the extant three- and two-loop results for the static and dynamic exponents for the Yang–Lee edge singularity, respectively, which falls into the same universality class as ϕ 3 theory, we estimate the thermal hysteresis exponents of the various classes to the same precision. Comparisons with numerical results and experiments are briefly discussed.
We show by a detailed study of the mean-field approximation, the Gaussian approximation, the perturbation expansion, and the field-theoretic renormalization-group analysis of a φ3φ^{3}φ3 theory that its instability fixed points with their associated instability exponents are quite probably relevant to the scaling and universality behavior exhibited by the first-order phase transitions in a field-driven scalar ϕ4ϕ^4ϕ4 model below its critical temperature near their instability points. Finite-time scaling and leading corrections to scaling are considered. We also show that the instability exponents of the first-order phase transitions equal those of the Yang--Lee edge singularity and employ the latter to improve our estimates of the former. The outcomes agree well with existent numerical results.
We have used the Monte Carlo renormalization group method to study the order-disorder phase transition of the three and four dimensional, three-state Potts model. In both cases, the transition appears to be first order. However, no evidence for a discontinuity fixed point associated with these transitions was found. Instead, the existence of a nearby second order fixed point just beyond the first order transition could be inferred from the RG flow in the ordered as well as in the disordered state. These results imply that the thermodynamic quantities are analytically continuable into the metastable regions, and that apart from discontinuities caused by the intersection of the two free-energy branches, no additional singularities occur at the transition.
Many condensed matter systems, ranging from adsorbed surfaces to bulk magnets, are microscopically modelled by interacting q-state Potts spins, arrayed in d dimensions. A changeover from second-order phase transitions at q≤qc(d) to first-order transitions at q≳qc can be understood as a condensation of effect vacancies, which are patches of local disorder favored by entropy. Accordingly, the renormalization-group treatment of Potts models is within context of Potts-lattice-gas models, where critical and tricritical fixed points occur at low q, but merge and annihilate at qc. This picture has led to exact tricritical exponents in two dimensions. It is also consistent with recent experimental results on intercalated systems in three dimensions. Effective vacancies in pure Potts models have also been studied by Monte Carlo simulation. Their effective chemical potential can be controlled by a four-point interaction, which proved useful in Monte Carlo renormalization-group studies.