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Journal of Applied Physics

First- and second-order phase transitions in Potts models: Competing mechanisms (invited)

A. Nihat Berker, David Andelman

Published Nov 1, 1982• 24 citations

Abstract

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.

DOI: 10.1063/1.330231

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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.

A generalization of the Niemeijer-van Leeuwen renormalization-group transformation treating disordered cells of spins as vacancies is introduced and applied to the two-dimensional

q

-state Potts model. Finite-lattice approximations yield the changeover from continuous to first-order phase transitions predicted by Baxter but not observed in previous renormalization-group calculations. Exact results are conjectured for the tricritical exponents of dilute Potts models.

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.

Using Monte Carlo techniques and finite-size analysis, we investigate several two-dimensional lattice models with open edges, including the Blume-Capel model and the q=1 and 3 Potts models with vacancies. At bulk tricriticality, we find that the open edges are dominated by the vacancies when the surface coupling K(s) and the chemical potential D(s) of the vacancies assume the bulk values. When K(s) and/or D(s) is sufficiently enhanced, an edge phase transition takes place, beyond which spontaneous one-dimensional order occurs on the edges. Edge phase transitions can also be induced by a surface magnetic field H(s) . We numerically determine a number of edge critical exponents and derive phase diagrams in terms of K(s) , D(s) , and H(s) . In the low-temperature region, we observe first-order transitions when K(s) and D(s) are varied; the associated hysteresis loops of surface quantities are remarkably asymmetric. Some further insight into these edge transitions is provided by the exact equivalence of the tricritical q=1 Potts model and the Ising model.

The surface and bulk properties of the two-dimensional

Q>4

state Potts model in the vicinity of the first-order bulk transition point have been studied by exact calculations and by density-matrix renormalization-group techniques. For the surface transition the complete analytical solution of the problem is presented in the $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{Q}\ensuremath{\infty}$ limit, including the critical and tricritical exponents, magnetization profiles, and scaling functions. We have shown in an accurate numerical study that the universality class of the surface transition is independent of the value of

Q>4.

For the bulk transition we have numerically calculated the latent heat and the magnetization discontinuity and we have shown that the correlation lengths in the ordered and disordered phases are identical at the transition point.

The critical behavior of the three-state Potts model in two dimensions is investigated with the use of the Monte Carlo renormalization group (MCRG), and the results are compared with conjectured values as well as with other methods. Recent advances in the MCRG enable greatly improved convergence, as well as greater insight into the structure of the renormalization transformation. The introduction of a four-point interaction is used to control the chemical potential of effective vacancies in a purely Potts Hamiltonian.