We study bond percolation in two dimensions between random site variables having one out of
q colors, using transfer-matrix and Monte Carlo techniques. We determine the percolation threshold as a function of the Potts temperature
T in the disordered Potts range ${T}_{c}\ensuremath{\leqslant}T<\ensuremath{\infty}$ for several
q-state Potts Hamiltonians. For high
T, these transitions fit, irrespective of
q, in the universality class of the ordinary percolation transitions. However, for $T\ensuremath{\downarrow}{T}_{c}$,
q-dependent crossover phenomena appear. The topology of the phase diagram changes in a qualitative sense at
q=2. For
q<2 the Potts critical state appears to enhance percolation, for
q>2 it appears to suppress it. Remarkably, for
q=2 the percolation line coincides with the only flow line extending to
T>Tc from the critical fixed point associated with Potts clusters.
We study the two-dimensional dilute q-state Potts model by means of transfer-matrix and Monte Carlo methods. Using the random-cluster representation, we include noninteger values of q. We locate phase transitions in the three-dimensional parameter space of q, the Potts coupling K>>0, and the chemical potential of the vacancies. The critical plane is found to contain a line of fixed points that divides into a critical branch and a tricritical one, just as predicted by the renormalization scenario formulated by Nienhuis et al for the dilute Potts model. The universal properties along the line of fixed points agree with the theoretical predictions. We also determine the density of the vacancies along these branches. For q=2-squareroot of 2 we obtain the phase diagram in a three-dimensional parameter space that also includes a coupling V> or = 0 between the vacancies. For q=2, the latter space contains the Blume-Capel model as a special case. We include a determination of the tricritical point of this model, as well as an analysis of percolation clusters constructed on tricritical Potts configurations for noninteger q. This percolation study is based on Monte Carlo algorithms that include local updates flipping between Potts sites and vacancies. The bond updates are performed locally for and by means of a cluster algorithm for q>1. The updates for q>1 use a number of operations per site independent of the system size.
The q-state Potts model on a square lattice and in the presence of an external magnetic field that couples to only one state is studied by using extensive Monte Carlo simulations. A hybrid algorithm that combines the single spin-flip Metropolis method with Wolff cluster updates is employed. Single-histogram reweighting techniques and the field-mixing approach are also used to obtain the corresponding universal probability distributions. By analyzing the finite-size scaling behavior of the order parameters and universal probability distributions, the phase diagram in the temperature-versus-external field plane is obtained in the thermodynamic limit for some values of state q≥5. For positive fields and higher values of q, there is a clear first-order transition line that starts at the zero-field transition point and ends at an isolated critical point, which is in the two-dimensional Ising universality class. As the value of state q decreases, the corresponding critical field also decreases. The present results strongly suggest that the critical field vanishes when q→5^{+}. However, for negative fields, another first-order transition line occurs without any critical or multicritical behavior for q≥6. The special case with q=5 undergoes a weak first-order transition at zero field and a line of second-order transitions for negative fields. This second-order transition line is in the same universality class as the q=4 Potts model.
Using the parallel tempering algorithm and graphics processing unit accelerated techniques, we have performed large-scale Monte Carlo simulations of the Ising model on a square lattice with antiferromagnetic (repulsive) nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor interactions of the same strength and subject to a uniform magnetic field. Both transitions from the (2x1) and row-shifted (2x2) ordered phases to the paramagnetic phase are continuous. From our data analysis, re-entrance behavior of the (2x1) critical line and a bicritical point which separates the two ordered phases at T=0 are confirmed. Based on the critical exponents we obtained along the phase boundary, Suzuki's weak universality seems to hold.
The q-state Potts model can be formulated in geometric terms, with Fortuin-Kasteleyn (FK) clusters as fundamental objects. For vanishing external field, the phase transition of the model can be equivalently described as a percolation transition of FK clusters. In this work, we investigate numerically the percolation behaviour along the line of first-order phase transitions of the 3d 3-state Potts model in a non-vanishing external field and find that the percolation strength exhibits a discontinuity along the entire line. The endpoint is also a percolation point for the FK clusters, but the corresponding critical exponents are neither in the Ising nor in the random percolation universality class. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.
We consider the thermal phase transition from a paramagnetic to a stripe-antiferromagnetic phase in the frustrated two-dimensional square-lattice Ising model with competing interactions
J1<0 (nearest neighbor, ferromagnetic) and
J2>0 (second neighbor, antiferromagnetic). The striped phase breaks a
Z4 symmetry and is stabilized at low temperatures for
g=J2/∣J1∣>1/2. Despite the simplicity of the model, it has proved difficult to precisely determine the order and the universality class of the phase transitions. This was done convincingly only recently by Jin et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 045702 (2012)]. Here, we further elucidate the nature of these transitions and their anomalies by employing a combination of cluster mean-field theory, Monte Carlo simulations, and transfer-matrix calculations. The
J1-
J2 model has a line of very weak first-order phase transitions in the whole region
1/2<g<g∗, where ${g}^{*}=0.67\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.01$. Thereafter, the transitions from
g=g∗ to $g\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ are continuous and can be fully mapped, using universality arguments, to the critical line of the well-known Ashkin-Teller model from its four-state Potts point to the decoupled Ising limit. We also comment on the pseudo-first-order behavior at the Potts point and its neighborhood in the Ashkin-Teller model on finite lattices, which in turn leads to the appearance of similar effects in the vicinity of the multicritical point
g∗ in the
J1-
J2 model. The continuous transitions near
g∗ can therefore be mistaken for first-order transitions, and this realization was the key to understanding the paramagnetic-striped transition for the full range of
g>1/2. Most of our conclusions are based on Monte Carlo calculations, while the cluster mean-field and transfer-matrix results provide useful methodological benchmarks for weakly first-order behaviors and Ashkin-Teller criticality.