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.
Critical properties of the
Q-state Potts model for dimensions $3\ensuremath{\le}d\ensuremath{\le}6$ are calculated by means of Wilson's exact momentum-space renormalization-group equation. The scaling-field method of Golner and Riedel is used to approximate the functional differential equation by a set of 11 ordinary coupled differential equations. For $d=4\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\epsilon}$, lines of critical and tricritical Potts fixed points are found as functions of
Q that annihilate as
Q approaches a critical value ${Q}_{c}=\frac{2+{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}^{2}}{a+O({\ensuremath{\epsilon}}^{3})}$. For
Q>Qc, the Potts transition is first order. Along these fixed lines the critical and tricritical exponents (upper and lower sign, respectively) are to leading order: $\frac{1}{\ensuremath{\nu}}=2\ensuremath{-}\frac{1}{6}[\ensuremath{\epsilon}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}{({\ensuremath{\epsilon}}^{2}\ensuremath{-}a\ensuremath{\delta})}^{\frac{1}{2}}]$, $\frac{\ensuremath{\varphi}}{\ensuremath{\nu}}=\ensuremath{\mp}{({\ensuremath{\epsilon}}^{2}\ensuremath{-}a\ensuremath{\delta})}^{\frac{1}{2}}$, and $\ensuremath{\eta}=\frac{{[\ensuremath{\epsilon}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}{({\ensuremath{\epsilon}}^{2}\ensuremath{-}a\ensuremath{\delta})}^{\frac{1}{2}}]}^{2}}{216}+b\ensuremath{\delta}$, where $\ensuremath{\epsilon}=4\ensuremath{-}d$, $\ensuremath{\delta}=Q\ensuremath{-}2$, and $\ensuremath{\delta}\ensuremath{\le}{\ensuremath{\delta}}_{c}=\frac{{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}^{2}}{a}+O({\ensuremath{\epsilon}}^{3})$. While the form of the $\ensuremath{\epsilon}$ and $\ensuremath{\delta}$ dependences is exact, the coefficients
a and
b cannot be obtained systematically by $\ensuremath{\epsilon}$ expansion, since the upper critical dimensionality of the Potts model is six when $Q\ensuremath{\ne}2$. In our truncation,
a=6.52 and
b=0.065. The results have been extended to dimensions $3.4\ensuremath{\le}d\ensuremath{\lesssim}4$ by solving the renormalization-group equations numerically. The percolation limit of the Potts model,
Q=1, is also investigated and the critical exponents ${\ensuremath{\nu}}^{P},{\ensuremath{\varphi}}^{P}$, and ${\ensuremath{\eta}}^{P}$ determined as functions of dimension for $3\ensuremath{\le}d\ensuremath{\le}6$.
A theory of the scaling behavior near the
qc=4 state multicritical point of the two-dimensional Potts lattice gas model is developed. Proceeding from the assumption that a dilution field becomes marginal at the multicritical point while the thermal and ordering fields are relevant, a set of differential renormalization group (RG) equations for these fields are constructed. Keeping terms through second order we find that these equations are characterized by five universal parameters which we evaluate using exact as well as conjectured results. Based upon these RG equations, we investigate the physical properties of the two-dimensional Potts lattice gas for
q near
qc. For the pure Potts model with
q=qc we find logarithmic temperature corrections to the specific heat and the spontaneous magnetization. At
Tc we find
ln(r) corrections to the power law behavior of the spin-spin correlation function. For the dilute Potts model with
q=qc we find that the latent heat, the discontinuity in the magnetization, and the discontinuity in the coexisting densities vanish with an essential singularity as
T approaches the multicritical point from the first-order side. Results for
q>qc and
q<qc are also given.
The thermal critical exponent of the four-state Potts model in two dimensions is evaluated as ${\ensuremath{\nu}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}=1.49\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.01$, using the Monte Carlo renormalization-group method. The presence of a marginal scaling direction is also indicated. These results confirm previous conjectures, universality, and logarithmic corrections. A purely Potts Hamiltonian is considered. A four-point interaction is used to control the chemical potential of effective vacancies, without the introduction of explicit vacancy states.