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.
The partition functions of the two- and three-dimensional finite Ising models in the presence of a magnetic field have been calculated with use of a high-speed computer. Periodic boundary conditions were imposed. All the numbers of configurations for the 3×3×3, 5×5, and 4×6 lattices are tabulated. The distribution of zeros of the partition functions in the complex magnetic-field plane has been obtained both for the ferro- and antiferromagnetic cases. The zeros in the ferromagnetic cases are distributed on the unit circle according to the Yang-Lee theorem, and the dependence on temperature of the distribution functions has been studied. In the antiferromagnetic case most of zeros are on the negative real axis, but a certain number of complex roots appear in the left half of the plane. The magnetization and the magnetic susceptibility have been calculated as functions of temperature.