Temperature-driven first-order phase transitions that involve symmetry breaking are converted to second order by the introduction of infinitesimal quenched bond randomness in spatial dimensions d≤2 or d≤4, respectively, for systems of n=1 or n≥ (R18)2 component microscopic degrees of freedom. Even strongly first-order transitions undergo this conversion to second order! Above these dimensions, this phenomenon still occurs, but requires a threshold amount of bond randomness. For example, under bond randomness, the phase transitions of q-state Potts models are second order for all q in d≤2. If no symmetry breaking is involved, temperature-driven first-order phase transitions are eliminated under the above conditions. Another consequence is that bond randomness drastically alters multicritical phase diagrams. Tricritical points and critical endpoints are entirely eliminated (d≤2) or depressed in temperature (d≳2). Similarly, bicritical phase diagrams are converted (d≤2) to reentrant-disorder-line or decoupled-tetracritical phase diagrams. These quenched-fluctuation-induced second-order transitions (a diametric opposite to the previously known annealed-fluctuation-induced first-order transitions) should lead to a multitude of new universality classes of criticality, including many experimentally accessible cases.
It is argued on general grounds that bond randomness drastically alters multicritical phase diagrams via a random-field mechanism. For example, tricritical points and critical endpoints are entirely eliminated (in spatial dimension d≤2) or depressed in temperature (d>2). These predictions are confirmed by a renormalization-group calculation.1 Another consequence of this phenomenon is that, under bond randomness, the phase transitions of q-state Potts models are second order for all q at dimensionality d≤2.
It is argued on general grounds that bond randomness drastically alters multicritical phase diagrams via a random-field mechanism. For example, tricritical points and critical end points are entirely eliminated (d\ensuremath{\le}2) or depressed in temperature (d>2). These predictions are confirmed by a renormalization-group calculation. Another consequence of this phenomenon is that, under bond randomness, the phase transitions of q-state Potts models are second order for all q at dimensionality d\ensuremath{\le}2.
In view of the recently seen dramatic effect of quenched random bonds on tricritical systems, we have conducted a renormalization-group study on the effect of quenched random magnetic fields on the tricritical phase diagram of the spin-1 Ising model in
d=3. We find that random fields convert first-order phase transitions into second-order phase transitions more effectively than random bonds. The coexistence region is extremely flat, attesting to an unusually small tricritical exponent ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{u}$. The random-field phase diagram is strikingly asymmetric. To accommodate this asymmetry, the second-order boundary exhibits reentrance.
Disorder is an inevitable part of any condensed matter system and therefore its study has always been of great importance. The effect of quenched randomness on a system that exhibits a continuous phase transition in the absence of any impurity has been studied in the past and the results are relatively well understood. However, the effect of quenched randomness on \\emph{first-order} phase transitions is still not well understood. In this dissertation, we study the effect of quenched bond-randomness on the classical and quantum first-order phase transitions.In Chapter 2, we study the effect of the disordered three-color Ashkin-Teller model, whose pure version undergoes a first-order phase transition. We show that the rounding of the first-order transition of the pure model due to the impurities is manifested as a critical point. We conclusively rule out that the model belongs to the universality class of the two-dimensional Ising model. Furthermore, we find that the exponents
beta and
nu vary with disorder and the four-spin coupling strength.In Chapter 3, we extend our study of the disordered three-color Ashkin-Teller model. Utilizing extensive cluster Monte Carlo simulations on large lattice sizes of up to
128times128 spins, each of which is represented by three colors taking values
pm1, we show that the rounding of the first-order phase transition is an emergent criticality.We find that the critical exponents,
nu and
beta, change as the strength of disorder or the four-spin coupling varies, and we show that the correlation length critical exponent violates the lower bound
2/Dlenu, where
D is the dimension of the system.In Chapter 4, we study the \\emph{quantum} three-color Ashkin--Teller model and show that the quantum critical point in
(1+1) dimension is an unusual one, with activated scaling at the critical point and Griffiths-McCoy phase away from it. We find that the behavior is similar to the transverse random field Ising model, even though the pure system has a first-order transition in this case.
The effect of quenched impurities on systems undergoing first-order phase transitions is studied within the framework of the
q-state Potts model. For large
q a mapping to the random-field Ising model explains the absence of any latent heat in 2D, and suggests that for
d>2 such systems exhibit a tricritical point with an exponent $\ensuremath{\nu}$ related to those of the random-field model by $\ensuremath{\nu}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{RF}}/(2\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{\mathrm{RF}}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\beta}}_{\mathrm{RF}})$. In 2D we analyze the model using finite-size scaling and conformal invariance, and find a continuous transition with a ratio $\ensuremath{\beta}/\ensuremath{\nu}$ which varies continuously with
q, and a weakly varying exponent $\ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\approx}1$. We find strong evidence for the multiscaling of the correlation functions.