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Physical review. B, Solid state

Phase Transitions and Static Spin Correlations in Ising Models with Free Surfaces

Kurt Binder, Pierre C. Hohenberg

Published Nov 1, 1972• 452 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Phase transitions in Ising models with tree surfaces are studied from various points of view, including a phenomenological Landau theory, high-temperature series expansions, and a scaling theory for thermodynamic quantities and correlation functions. In the presence of a surface a number of new critical exponents must be defined. These arise because of the existence of "surface" terms in the thermodynamic functions, and because of the anisotropy of space and lack of translational symmetry introduced by the surface. The need for these new critical exponents already appears in the phenomenological theory, which is discussed in detail and related to the microscopic mean-field approximation. The essential new parameter appearing in this theory is an extrapolation length $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ which enters the boundary condition on the magnetization at the surface. For magnetic systems this length is of the order of the interaction range, in contrast to superconductors, where it is usually much larger. In order to go beyond the mean-field theory, high-temperature series expansions are carried out for the Ising half-space, to tenth order in two dimensions and to eighth order in three dimensions. A scaling theory is developed both for thermodynamic functions and for spin correlations near the surface, and relations are found among the exponents of the half-space. Both the scaling theory and the numerical calculations are compared with the exact solution of the Ising half-plane (two dimensions) by McCoy and Wu, and agreement is found wherever the theory is applicable. In analogy to the bulk situation, the scaling theory is found to agree with mean-field theory in four dimensions. The prediction of the present work which is most easily accessible to experiment is the temperature dependence of the magnetization at the surface, with critical exponent estimated to be ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{1}=\frac{2}{3}$. The mean-field result, ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{1}=1$, seems to agree more closely with presently available experiment, and more work is needed to clarify the situation.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.6.3461

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Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General•Nov 1, 1977•319 citations
Phase transitions in Ising models with tree surfaces are studied from various points of view, including a phenomenological Landau theory, high-temperature series expansions, and a scaling theory for thermodynamic quantities and correlation functions. In the presence of a surface a number of new critical exponents must be defined. These arise because of the existence of "surface" terms in the thermodynamic functions, and because of the anisotropy of space and lack of translational symmetry introduced by the surface. The need for these new critical exponents already appears in the phenomenological theory, which is discussed in detail and related to the microscopic mean-field approximation. The essential new parameter appearing in this theory is an extrapolation length \ensuremathλ\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremathλ which enters the boundary condition on the magnetization at the surface. For magnetic systems this length is of the order of the interaction range, in contrast to superconductors, where it is usually much larger. In order to go beyond the mean-field theory, high-temperature series expansions are carried out for the Ising half-space, to tenth order in two dimensions and to eighth order in three dimensions. A scaling theory is developed both for thermodynamic functions and for spin correlations near the surface, and relations are found among the exponents of the half-space. Both the scaling theory and the numerical calculations are compared with the exact solution of the Ising half-plane (two dimensions) by McCoy and Wu, and agreement is found wherever the theory is applicable. In analogy to the bulk situation, the scaling theory is found to agree with mean-field theory in four dimensions. The prediction of the present work which is most easily accessible to experiment is the temperature dependence of the magnetization at the surface, with critical exponent estimated to be \ensuremathβ1=23{\ensuremath{\beta}}_{1}=\frac{2}{3}\ensuremathβ1​=32​. The mean-field result, \ensuremathβ1=1{\ensuremath{\beta}}_{1}=1\ensuremathβ1​=1, seems to agree more closely with presently available experiment, and more work is needed to clarify the situation.
The surface scaling theory previously presented by the authors is developed further, and derived heuristically from a cluster model. Monte Carlo calculations are carried out to obtain the spatial and temperature dependence of the magnetization in Ising and Heisenberg systems with free surfaces. The exponent ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{1}$ of the (surface) layer magnetization is shown to agree with the scaling value (${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{1}\ensuremath{\approx}\frac{2}{3}$) previously derived. In the Heisenberg system, the results at low temperature agree with a spin-wave calculation by Mills and Maradudin. Ising models with modified exchange ${J}_{s}=J(1+\ensuremath{\Delta})\ensuremath{\ne}J$ on the surface are considered, both in mean-field theory and by means of high-temperature-series expansions. The critical value ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{c}$ for surface ordering is found from the series to be 0.6, compared to the mean-field value of 0.25. For $\ensuremath{\Delta}>{\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{c}$ there is a temperature region in which the surface behaves like a bulk two-dimensional Ising model near its phase transition. The critical exponents experience a crossover at $\ensuremath{\Delta}={\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{c}$, which is reflected in poorly behaved series, and effective exponents differing from the true ones for $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\lesssim}{\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{c}$. In the case of weakened surface exchange (0<Js<J0<{J}_{s}<J0<Js​<J), the layer magnetization is shown to fit a linear temperature dependence over a large temperature range below Tc{T}_{c}Tc​, thus providing a possible explanation for previous experiments. For sufficiently strong negative Js{J}_{s}Js​, mean-field theory predicts that the surface will order antiferromagnetically while the bulk is ferromagnetic.
First, a new method proposed by Baker and Rushbrooke is used to study the simple ferromagnetic Ising model at and below the Curie temperature. Of course, the properties of the Ising model are already well known, so that the main aim here is to assess the potential and reliability of the new method, since it has wide applicability to other models which have not been otherwise studied. Between 8 and 16 coefficients of exact high-temperature expansions for fixed values of the magnetization are derived for various two- and three-dimensional lattices. A Pad\'e-approximant analysis of these expansions at the critical isotherm and magnetic phase boundary enables us to estimate the critical exponents $\ensuremath{\beta}$, ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$, and $\ensuremath{\delta}$, and plot the spontaneous magnetization. The results are in good agreement with previous calculations. Secondly, an analysis of the exact series expansions provides no support for the conjecture that the phase boundary is a line of essential singularities. However, the same expansions strongly suggest the existence of a "spinodal" curve, whose properties are in reasonable agreement with the predictions of various heuristic arguments (based essentially upon analyticity at the phase boundary and one-phase homogeneity in the critical region). Finally, structure and a mild extension of the proven analyticity of the free energy are used to show the $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\le}{\ensuremath{\Delta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$, $\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\le}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$.
The nature of the zero-temperature ordering transition in the three-dimensional Gaussian random-field Ising magnet is studied numerically, aided by scaling analyses. Various numerical calculations are used to consistently infer the location of the transition to a high precision. A variety of boundary conditions are imposed on large samples to study the order of the transition and the number of states in the large volume limit. In the ferromagnetic phase, where the domain walls have fractal dimension ds=2,{d}_{s}=2,ds​=2, the scaling of the roughness of the domain walls, $w\ensuremath{\sim}{L}^{\ensuremath{\zeta}},$ is consistent with the theoretical prediction $\ensuremath{\zeta}=2/3.$ As the randomness is increased through the transition, the probability distribution of the interfacial tension of domain walls scales in a manner that is clearly consistent with a single second-order transition. At the critical point, the fractal dimensions of domain walls and the fractal dimension of the outer surface of spin clusters are investigated: there are at least two distinct physically important fractal dimensions that describe domain walls. These dimensions are argued to be related by scaling to combinations of the energy scaling exponent $\ensuremath{\theta},$ which determines the violation of hyperscaling, the correlation length exponent $\ensuremath{\nu},$ and the magnetization exponent $\ensuremath{\beta}.$ The value $\ensuremath{\beta}=0.017\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.005$ computed from finite-size scaling of the magnetization is very nearly zero: this estimate is supported by the study of the spin cluster size distribution at criticality. The variation of configurations in the interior of a sample with boundary conditions is consistent with the hypothesis that there is a single transition separating the disordered phase with one ground state from the ordered phase with two ground states. The array of results, including values for several exponents, are shown to be consistent with a scaling picture and a geometric description of the influence of boundary conditions on the spins. The details of the algorithm used and its implementation are also described.
We use simple position-space renormalization-group procedures involving only nearest-neighbor interactions to discuss the critical behavior of the ferromagnetically coupled semi-infinite Ising model with a free surface in two and three dimensions. In three dimensions for suitably enhanced surface couplings there are surface transitions and simultaneous surface-bulk transitions as well as the bulk transition. A phase diagram, critical exponents for the various transitions, and some representative magnetization profiles are calculated. Despite their simplicity, the renormalization transformations exhibit complete sets of fixed points for describing the various phase transitions and yield phase diagrams which are a significant improvement over mean-field theory. However, the calculated magnetization profiles show some unphysical features due to the finite cluster size on which the transformations are based.
The critical behavior of a continuous spin system in a semi-infinite sample is studied for all values of the extrapolation length $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ using mean-field theory. A new transition, which we have called the extraordinary transition, is found for $\ensuremath{\lambda}<0$ in which the bulk orders at a temperature below the surface ordering temperature. In this paper we have calculated the magnetic susceptibilities $\ensuremath{\chi}(z)$ and $\ensuremath{\chi}(z, z)$ and the correlation function $\ensuremath{\Gamma}(\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{x}}, {\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{x}}}^{\ensuremath{'}})$ at all the phase transitions. We have used these results to compute the various $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ and $\ensuremath{\eta}$ exponents and to study the scaling relations introduced by Binder and Hohenberg.
The critical behaviour of a semi-infinite system with O(n) spin symmetry is investigated using four techniques: (i) mean-field theory, (ii) exact solution for n= infinity , (iii) the epsilon expansion, and (iv) scaling arguments. The surface equation of state is computed using mean-field theory, and the four phase transitions defined by Lubensky and Rubin, the 'ordinary', 'surface', 'extraordinary', and ' lambda = infinity ' ('special') transitions, are identified. The first three may be observed in the bulk system by adding a suitable 'surface' perturbation which destroys translational invariance. Scaling arguments give their critical exponents exactly in terms of bulk exponents. Critical exponents for the ' lambda = infinity ' transition are determined for n= infinity and also to O( epsilon ). Spin-spin correlation functions at T=T c for the 'ordinary', 'extraordinary' and ' lambda = infinity ' transitions are calculated exactly for n= infinity .