Classical XY spins on a two dimensional triangular lattice with antiferromagnetic interactions are reconsidered. We find that the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition associated to the U(1) symmetry appears at a temperature 0.0020(2) below the Ising transition at 0.5122(1) associated to the Z_2 symmetry. The Ising transition has critical exponents different from the standard ones. Using extensive Monte Carlo simulations for equilibrium and dynamical properties we show that the lack of universality observed in previous studies is due to finite size corrections not taken account. Likewise the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition has a critical exponent η\approx0.36 larger than the corresponding standard value 0.25. Also the helicity jump at the critical temperature is smaller than in the ferromagnetic case in disagreement with theoretical predictions. We try using the concept of an "quasi Universality class" to reconcile the standard critical behavior observable at higher temperatures with the different quasi universal one close to the critical region.
Classical XY spins on a two dimensional triangular lattice with antiferromagnetic interactions are reconsidered. We find that the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition associated to the U(1) symmetry appears at a temperature 0.0020(2) below the Ising transition at 0.5122(1) associated to the Z_2 symmetry. The Ising transition has critical exponents different from the standard ones. Using extensive Monte Carlo simulations for equilibrium and dynamical properties we show that the lack of universality observed in previous studies is due to finite size corrections not taken account. Likewise the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition has a critical exponent η\approx0.36 larger than the corresponding standard value 0.25. Also the helicity jump at the critical temperature is smaller than in the ferromagnetic case in disagreement with theoretical predictions. We try using the concept of an "quasi Universality class" to reconcile the standard critical behavior observable at higher temperatures with the different quasi universal one close to the critical region.
The frustrated antiferromagnetic XY model on the triangular lattice is a simple model describing the critical phenomena of magnetic systems. By using the Monte Carlo simulation method associated with the Metropolis algorithm, we investigate phase transitions of the system at critical temperatures and near critical temperatures. To achieve a scaling form of important parameters, the finite size effect must be taken into account. Our results show clearly that the broken symmetries of the system occur at two separate critical temperatures, the Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature and the Ising-like temperature (TI). However these temperatures lie close to each other about 0.6% compared with the lower temperature. At TI, the reflection symmetry breaking transition occurs and it is known as the Ising-like transition. While at the lower temperature, the rotational symmetry breaking transition occurs and it is known as the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. Moreover, we found the asymptotic behavior of the correlation length of the Ising-like transition with the critical exponent, ν = 0.74. Taken into account the finite size effect, this value approaches 0.83 which differs from the value, ν = 1, for the Ising universality class. It is likely that the Ising-like transition may not belong to the Ising universality class. Also the other parameters such as the energy of the system, the order parameters, the specific heat, the magnetic susceptibility and the correlation functions have been calculated and their properties near the critical temperatures and at the critical temperatures have been studied.
We study the antiferromagnetic {\it XY} model on a triangular lattice by extensive Monte Carlo simulations, focusing on its ordering and critical properties. Our result clearly shows that two separate transitions occur at two distinct temperatures, the one at a higher temperature is associated with a Z2-symmetry breaking driven by the chirality, and the one at a lower temperature is associated with the onset of the quasi-long-range order of the {\it XY} spin. We carefully examine the critical properties of each transition to find that the criticality of the chiral transition is consistent with the standard two-dimensional Ising universality class, whereas that of the spin transition might differ from the conventional Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) one. The observed non-KT nature of the spin criticality is consistent with the most recent simulation result on the fully-frustrated {\it XY} model on a square lattice.
Abstract Phase transitions and thermodynamics properties of the frustrated antiferromagnetic XY (FAXY) model have been investigated near the two transition temperatures. We found that the Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition corresponding to the rotational U(1) symmetry breaking and the Ising-like (I) transition corresponding to the reflection Z 2 symmetry breaking occur at two-separate transition temperatures, Tkt < TI . These temperatures lie close to each other, however in our results the separation is obvious. Our results show the order parameters as a function of temperature and we also estimate the critical exponents, β, α, γ, η and ν. The critical exponent ν indicates that the Ising-like transition is inconsistent with the Ising universality class.
We study the phase diagram of the two-dimensional fully frustrated XY model (FFXY) and of two related models, a lattice discretization of the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson Hamiltonian for the critical modes of the FFXY model, and a coupled Ising-XY model. We present Monte Carlo simulations on square lattices L × L , L ≲ 10 3 . We show that the low-temperature phase of these models is controlled by the same line of Gaussian fixed points as in the standard XY model. We find that, if a model undergoes a unique transition by varying temperature, then the transition is of first order. In the opposite case we observe two very close transitions: a transition associated with the spin degrees of freedom and, as temperature increases, a transition where chiral modes become critical. If they are continuous, they belong to the Kosterlitz-Thouless and to the Ising universality class, respectively. Ising and Kosterlitz-Thouless behavior is observed only after a preasymptotic regime, which is universal to some extent. In the chiral case, the approach is nonmonotonic for most observables, and there is a wide region in which finite-size scaling is controlled by an effective exponent ν eff ≈ 0.8. This explains the result ν ≈ 0.8 of many previous studies using smaller lattices.
We consider the two-dimensional (2D) ${J}_{1}\ensuremath{-}{J}_{2}$ classical XY model on a square lattice. In the frustrated phase corresponding to J2>J1/2, an Ising-like order parameter emerges by an ``order due to disorder'' effect. This leads to a discrete Z2 symmetry plus the U(1) global one. Using a powerful algorithm we show that the system undergoes two transitions at different but still very close temperatures, one of Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) type and another one which does not belong to the expected Ising universality class. A new analysis of the KT transition has been developed in order to avoid the use of the nonuniversal helicity jump and to allow the computation of the exponents without a precise determination of the critical temperature. Moreover, our huge number of data enables us to exhibit the existence of large finite size effects explaining the dispersed results found in the literature concerning the more studied frustrated 2D, XY models.
We present a detailed study of the critical properties of the two-dimensional (2D) XY model with maximal frustration in a square lattice. We use extensive Monte Carlo simulations to study the thermodynamics of the spin and chiral degrees of freedom, concentrating on their correlation functions. The gauge-invariant spin-spin correlation functions are calculated close to the critical point for lattice sizes up to 240\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}240; the chiral correlation functions are studied on lattices up to 96\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}96. We find that the critical exponents of the spin-phase transition are \ensuremath{\nu}=0.3069 and \ensuremath{\eta}=0.1915, which are to be compared with the unfrustrated XY model exponents \ensuremath{\nu}=1/2 and \ensuremath{\eta}=0.25. We also find that the critical exponents of the chiral transition are ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\chi}}}$=0.875, 2\ensuremath{\beta}=0.1936, 2\ensuremath{\gamma}=1.82, and 2\ensuremath{\gamma}'=1.025, which are different from the expected 2D Ising critical exponents. The spin-phase transition occurs at TU(1)=0.446, which is about 7% above the estimated chiral critical temperature TZ2=0.4206. However, because of the size of the statistical errors, it is difficult to decide with certainty whether the transitions occur at the same or at slightly different temperatures. Finally, the jump in the helicity modulus in the fully frustrated system is found to be about 23% below the unfrustrated universal value. The most important consequence of these results is that the fully frustrated XY model appears to be in a novel universality class. Recent successful comparisons of some of these results with experimental data are also briefly discussed.