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Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Magnetization: A characteristic of the Kosterlitz-Thouless-Berezinskii transition

S. T. Bramwell, P. C. W. Holdsworth

Published Apr 1, 1994• 140 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In the low-temperature phase of the two-dimensional XY model, spin-spin correlations decay so slowly with distance that the thermodynamic limit is inaccessible. As a result the Mermin-Wagner theorem is inapplicable to any realizable system, and all have a measurable finite-size magnetization. We show that there is a regime of universal behavior near to the Kosterlitz-Thouless-Berezinskii transition. In experiments, the regime is identified by a magnetization exponent \ensuremath{\beta}=0.23, which we have calculated by a renormalization-group analysis. Monte Carlo simulations of an harmonic XY model clearly locate the boundaries of the universal regime, and identify it with vortex renormalization.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.49.8811

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In the low-temperature phase of the two-dimensional XY model, spin-spin correlations decay so slowly with distance that the thermodynamic limit is inaccessible. As a result the Mermin-Wagner theorem is inapplicable to any realizable system, and all have a measurable finite-size magnetization. We show that there is a regime of universal behavior near to the Kosterlitz-Thouless-Berezinskii transition. In experiments, the regime is identified by a magnetization exponent \ensuremath{\beta}=0.23, which we have calculated by a renormalization-group analysis. Monte Carlo simulations of an harmonic XY model clearly locate the boundaries of the universal regime, and identify it with vortex renormalization.
It is argued that two-dimensional U(N) spin models for any N undergo a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT)-like phase transition, similarly to the famous XY model. This conclusion follows from the Berezinskii-like calculation of the two-point correlation function in U(N) models, approximate renormalization group analysis, and numerical investigations of the U(2) model. It is shown, via Monte Carlo simulations, that the universality class of the U(2) model coincides with that of the XY model. Moreover, preliminary numerical results point out that two-dimensional SU(N) spin models with the fundamental and adjoint terms and N>4 exhibit two phase transitions of BKT type, similarly to Z(N) vector models.
The critical behavior of statistical models with long-range interactions exhibits distinct regimes as a function of $\ensuremath{\rho}$, the power of the interaction strength decay. For large enough $\ensuremath{\rho}, \ensuremath{\rho}>{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{\mathrm{sr}}$, the critical behavior is observed to coincide with that of the short-range model. However, there are controversial aspects regarding this picture, one of which is the value of the short-range threshold ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{\mathrm{sr}}$ in the case of the long-range XY model in two dimensions. We study the 2D XY model on the diluted graph, a sparse graph obtained from the 2D lattice by rewiring links with probability decaying with the Euclidean distance of the lattice as ${|r|}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\rho}}$, which is expected to feature the same critical behavior of the long-range model. Through Monte Carlo sampling and finite-size analysis of the spontaneous magnetization and of the Binder cumulant, we present numerical evidence that ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{\mathrm{sr}}=4$. According to such a result, one expects the model to belong to the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless universality class for $\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\ge}4$, and to present a second-order transition for $\ensuremath{\rho}<4$.
We calculate the two-dimensional probability for the magnetization in a two-dimensional XY model of finite size. We show that, for arbitrarily large N, there is a topological difference between the distributions in the low-temperature spin wave regime and in the high-temperature paramagnetic regime. In the low-temperature phase is a well-defined ring function and we calculate an upper bound for . Even so, this is consistent with the susceptibility per spin, , being divergent. We show further that the distribution function Q(M) for the scalar magnetization has a universal form, scaling with the single variable , where L is the system size and J is the coupling constant. We show that has considerable structure, with two terms of order N, one due to the spin waves and the other due to vortices. This leads to a peak in at the Kosterlitz - Thouless - Berezinskii transition.
We present detailed Monte Carlo results for the susceptibility \ensuremath{\chi}, correlation length \ensuremath{\xi}, and specific heat Cv{\mathit{C}}_{\mathit{v}}Cv​ for the XY model. The simulations are done on 642{64}^{2}642, 1282{128}^{2}1282, 2562{256}^{2}2562, and 5122{512}^{2}5122 lattices over the temperature range 0.98\ensuremath{\le}T\ensuremath{\le}1.43 corresponding to 270. Fits to \ensuremath{\chi} and \ensuremath{\xi} data favor a Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) singularity over a second-order transition; however, unconstrained four-parameter KT fits do not confirm the predicted values \ensuremath{\nu}=0.5 and \ensuremath{\eta}=0.25. Our best estimate, Tc{\mathit{T}}_{\mathit{c}}Tc​=0.894(5), is obtained using KT fits with \ensuremath{\nu} fixed at 0.5. The exponent \ensuremath{\eta} is calculated as a function of temperature in the spin-wave phase using Monte Carlo renormalization-group and finite-size-scaling methods. Both methods give consistent results and we find \ensuremath{\eta}\ensuremath{\approxeq}0.235 at T=0.894. We also present results for the behavior of vortex density across the transition and exhibit how the dilute-gas approximation breaks down.
The thermodynamics of the two-dimensional (2D) XY model is formulated by a transfer-matrix method and analyzed by a density-matrix renormalization group. The finite-size scaling and the beta function of the model are studied by the Roomany-Wyld renormalization-group theory. It is found that the 2D XY model has an essential finite-size effect and the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition with the critical temperature TBKT=0.892{T}_{\mathrm{BKT}}=0.892TBKT​=0.892 appears in a finite system of 2000--3000 spins as a massless to massive transition with the effective critical temperature ${T}_{c}=1.07\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.01.$
Monte Carlo simulations of the two-dimensional XY model are performed in a square geometry with fixed boundary conditions. Using a conformal mapping, it is very easy to deduce the exponent η σ ( T ) of the order parameter correlation function at any temperature in the critical phase of the model. The temperature behaviour of η σ ( T ) is obtained numerically with a good accuracy up to the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature. At very low temperatures, a good agreement is found with Berezinskii's harmonic approximation. Surprisingly, we show some evidence that there are no logarithmic corrections to the behaviour of the order parameter density profile (with symmetry-breaking surface fields) at the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature.