The phase diagram of the Ising square ferromagnet with nearest-neighbor, next-nearest-neighbor, and four-spin (plaquette) interactions is investigated using the cluster variation method in the square approximation. A complete analysis in temperature is performed for the ferromagnetic, superantiferromagnetic, and frustrated region of the ground state. Particular attention is devoted to the role of the four-spin interaction. The most remarkable effect is the occurrence, in several regions of the interaction parameter space, of first-order transitions and sometimes reentrance phenomena. Critical and tricritical points are almost analytically determined.
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.
The Ising square lattice model with nearest-neighbor (nn) interactions (
J1) is one of the few exactly solvable models [1]. Adding next-neareast- neighbor (nnn) interactions (
J2) or a magnetic field (or both) leads to the non solvability of the model and only some approximate solutions are possible. In this brief report we will review some results obtained within effective field theory. We will show that besides second-order transitions there are also lines of first-order transitions and the coordinates of tricritical points are calculated.
We analyze the phase transition of the frustrated
J1-
J2 Ising model with antiferromagnetic nearest- and strong next-nearest-neighbor interactions on the square lattice. Using extensive Monte Carlo simulations we show that the nature of the phase transition for $1/2<{J}_{2}/{J}_{1}\ensuremath{\lesssim}1$ is not of the weakly universal type---as commonly believed---but we conclude from the clearly doubly peaked structure of the energy histograms that the transition is of weak first order. Motivated by these results, we analyze the phase transitions via field-theoretic methods; i.e., we calculate the central charge of the underlying field theory via transfer-matrix techniques and present, furthermore, a field-theoretic discussion on the phase-transition behavior of the model. Starting from the conformally invariant fixed point of two decoupled critical Ising models (
J1=0), we calculate the effect of the nearest-neighbor coupling term perturbatively using operator product expansions. As an effective action we obtain the Ashkin-Teller model.
The phase diagrams of Ising antiferromagnets in a magnetic field
H are investigated for various values of the ratio
R between nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor interaction. While meanfield approximations and the existing real-space renormalization-group treatments yield phase diagrams which are sometimes even qualitatively incorrect, accurate results are obtained from Monte Carlo calculations. For
R<0 only an antiferromagnetically ordered phase exists. Its transition to the disordered phase is first order for temperatures below the tricritical point (
Tt,
Ht). For $R\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$ also ${T}_{t}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$. For
R=0 we find very good agreement with the results of M\"uller-Hartmann and Zittartz. For
R>0 and
H1<H<H2 a new phase with anomalous high ground-state degeneracy is found (two sublattices have only one-dimensional order). These sublattices undergo order-disorder transitions at
T=0, such that for
T>0 one is left with a "superantiferromagnetic" phase. At low temperatures in this phase a pronounced tendency is observed to form a simpler (2 \ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{} 2) superstructure but with many antiphase domain boundaries. For $R\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\frac{1}{2}$ and
H<H1 the regime of the antiferromagnetic phases goes to zero temperature, while for
R>21 the superantiferromagnetic phase exists also for
H<H1. The order-disorder transition associated with this phase seems to have non-Ising critical exponents which vary as a function of
R and
H. Estimates for the exponents lead us to suggest that Suzuki's "weak universality" is valid. The behavior of the model at
T=0 is related to known results on hard-core lattice gases. It is shown that it is useful to interpret the transitions at
T=0 as generalized percolation transitions. Since the model may have applications to adsorbate phases in registered structures at (100) surfaces of cubic crystals, the transcription of our results to temperature-coverage phase diagrams and adsorption isotherms is discussed in detail, and possible experimental applications are mentioned.
We use Monte Carlo and transfer matrix methods in combination with extrapolation schemes to determine the phase diagram of the two-dimensional superantiferromagnetic (SAF) Ising model with next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) interactions in a magnetic field. The interactions between nearest-neighbor (NN) spins are ferromagnetic along x, and antiferromagnetic along Y. We find that for sufficiently low temperatures and fields, there exists a region limited by a critical line of second-order transitions separating a SAF phase from a magnetically induced paramagnetic phase. We did not find any region with either first-order transition or with reentrant behavior. The NNN couplings produce either an expansion or a contraction of the SAF phase. Expansion occurs when the interactions are antiferromagnetic, and contraction when they are ferromagnetic. There is a critical ratio R(c)=1/2 between NNN and NN couplings, beyond which the SAF phase no longer exists.