Random magnetic interactions and spin glass order competing with superconductivity: Interference of the quantum Parisi phase

We analyse the competition between spin glass (SG) order and local pairing superconductivity (SC) in the fermionic Ising spin glass with frustrated fermionic spin interaction and nonrandom attractive interaction. The phase diagram is presented for all temperatures T and chemical potentials μ. SC-SG transitions are derived for the relevant ratios between attractive and frustrated-magnetic interaction. Characteristic features of pairbreaking caused by random magnetic interaction and/or by spin glass proximity are found. The existence of low-energy excitations, arising from replica permutation symmetry breaking (RPSB) in the Quantum Parisi Phase, is shown to be relevant for the SC-SG phase boundary. Complete 1-step RPSB-calculations for the SG-phase are presented together with a few results for -step breaking. Suppression of reentrant SG-SC-SG transitions due to RPSB is found and discussed in context of ferromagnet-SG boundaries. The relative positioning of the SC and SG phases presents a theoretical landmark for comparison with experiments in heavy fermion systems and high superconductors. We find a crossover line traversing the SG-phase with as its quantum critical (end)point in complete RPSB, and scaling is proposed for its vicinity. We argue that this line indicates a random field instability and suggest Dotsenko-Mézard vector replica symmetry breaking to occur at low temperatures beyond. Received 26 November 1998 and Received in final form 25 January 1999     

On the properties of small-world network models

We study the small-world networks recently introduced by Watts and Strogatz [Nature 393, 440 (1998)], using analytical as well as numerical tools. We characterize the geometrical properties resulting from the coexistence of a local structure and random long-range connections, and we examine their evolution with size and disorder strength. We show that any finite value of the disorder is able to trigger a “small-world” behaviour as soon as the initial lattice is big enough, and study the crossover between a regular lattice and a “small-world” one. These results are corroborated by the investigation of an Ising model defined on the network, showing for every finite disorder fraction a crossover from a high-temperature region dominated by the underlying one-dimensional structure to a mean-field like low-temperature region. In particular there exists a finite-temperature ferromagnetic phase transition as soon as the disorder strength is finite. [0.5cm] Received 29 March 1999 and Received in final form 21 May 1999     

Phase diagram of the three states Potts model with next nearest neighbour interactions on the Bethe lattice

We have found an exact phase diagram of the Potts model with competing nearest neighbor and next nearest neighbor interactions on the Bethe lattice of order two. The diagram consists of five phases: ferromagnetic, paramagnetic, modulated, antiphase and paramodulated, all meeting at the multicritical point . We report on a new phase which we denote as paramodulated, found at low temperatures and characterized by zero average magnetization lying inside the modulated phase. Such a phase, inherent in the Potts model has no analogues in the Ising setting.     

Frustrated Blume-Emery-Griffiths model

A generalised integer S Ising spin glass model is analysed using the replica formalism. The bilinear couplings are assumed to have a Gaussian distribution with ferromagnetic mean . Incorporation of a quadrupolar interaction term and a chemical potential leads to a richer phase diagram with transitions of first and second order. The first order transition may be interpreted as a phase separation, and contrary to what has been argued previously, it persists in the presence of disorder. Finally, the stability of the replica symmetric solution with respect to fluctuations in replica space is analysed, and the transition lines are obtained both analytically and numerically. Received 13 January 1997     

Generalized off-equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation relations in random Ising systems

We show that the numerical method based on the off-equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation relation does work and is very useful and powerful in the study of disordered systems which show a very slow dynamics. We have verified that it gives the right information in the known cases (diluted ferromagnets and random field Ising model far from the critical point) and we used it to obtain more convincing results on the frozen phase of four-dimensional spin glasses. Moreover we used it to study the Griffiths phase of the diluted and the random field Ising models. Received 1 December 1998 and Received in final form 17 February 1999     

Broad histogram Monte Carlo

We propose a new Monte Carlo technique in which the degeneracy of energy states is obtained with a Markovian process analogous to that of Metropolis used currently in canonical simulations. The obtained histograms are much broader than those of the canonical histogram technique studied by Ferrenberg and Swendsen. Thus we can reliably reconstruct thermodynamic functions over a much larger temperature scale also away from the critical point. We show for the two-dimensional Ising model how our new method reproduces exact results more accurately and using less computer time than the conventional histogram method. We also show data in three dimensions for the Ising ferromagnet and the Edwards Anderson spin glass. Received: 8 August 1997 / Revised: 11 August 1997 / Accepted: 30 October 1997     

Slowing down in the three-dimensional three-state Potts glass with nearest neighbor exchange ± J: A Monte Carlo study

,Static and dynamic properties of the Potts model on the simple cubic lattice with nearest neighbor -interaction are obtained from Monte Carlo simulations in a temperature range where full thermal equilibrium still can be achieved (). For a lattice size L = 16, in this range finite size effects are still negligible, but the data for the spin glass susceptibility agree with previous extrapolations based on finite size scaling of very small lattices. While the static properties are compatible with a zero temperature transition, they certainly do not prove it. Unlike the Ising spin glass, the decay of the time-dependent order parameter is compatible with a simple Kohlrausch function, , while a power law prefactor cannot be distinguished. The Kohlrausch exponent y ( T ) decreases from at [0pt] to at [0pt] however. The relaxation time is compatible with the exponential divergence postulated by McMillan for spin glasses at their lower critical dimension, but the exponent that can be extracted still differs significantly from the theoretical value, . Thus the present results support the conclusion that the Potts spin glass in d = 3 dimensions differs qualitatively from the Ising spin glass. Received: 8 October 1997 / Accepted: 27 November 1997     

Phase diagram of an Ising model with competitive interactions on a Husimi tree and its disordered counterpart

We consider an Ising competitive model defined over a triangular Husimi tree where loops, responsible for an explicit frustration, are even allowed. We first analyze the phase diagram of the model with fixed couplings in which a “gas of noninteracting dimers (or spin liquid) — ferro or antiferromagnetic ordered state” zero temperature transition is recognized in the frustrated regions. Then we introduce the disorder for studying the spin glass version of the model: the triangular ±J model. We find out that, for any finite value of the averaged couplings, the model exhibits always a finite temperature phase transition even in the frustrated regions, where the transition turns out to be a glassy transition. The analysis of the random model is done by applying a recently proposed method which allows us to derive the critical surface of a random model through a mapping with a corresponding nonrandom model.     

Dynamical mean-field theory of a simplified double-exchange model

Simplified double-exchange model including transfer of the itinerant electrons with spin parallel to the localized spin in the same site and the indirect interaction J of kinetic type between localized spins is comprihensively investigated. The model is exactly solved in infinite dimensions. The exact equations describing the main ordered phases (ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic) are obtained for the Bethe lattice with (z is the coordination number) in analytical form. The exact expression for the generalized paramagnetic susceptibility of the localized-spin subsystem is also obtained in analytical form. It is shown that temperature dependence of the uniform and the staggered susceptibilities has deviation from Curie-Weiss law. Dependence of Curie and Néel temperatures on itinerant-electron concentration is discussed to study instability conditions of the paramagnetic phase. Anomalous temperature behaviour of the chemical potential, the thermopower and the specific heat is investigated near the Curie point. It is found for J=0 that the system is unstable towards temperature phase separation between ferromagnetic and paramagnetic states. A phase separation connected with antiferromagnetic and the paramagnetic phases can occur only at . Zero-temperature phase diagram including the phase separation between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic states is given. Received 28 May 1999 and Received in final form 14 July 1999     

A renormalization-group study into the effects of competing biquadratic and crystal-field interactions in the Blume–Emery–Griffiths model

The Blume–Emery–Griffiths model, a spin-1 Ising model with bilinear, biquadratic, and crystal field interactions, provides a general system for the analysis of systems driven by fluctuations in density and magnetization. In this study, we consider an exactly solvable system in which frustration is present due to competing biquadratic and crystal-field interactions. Thus, this calculation models a dilute ferromagnetic material with two types of nearest-neighbor site pairs, distinguished by whether or not simultaneous occupation is energetically favored. To determine the effects of this competition, we have constructed exactly solvable frustrated hierarchical models similar to those introduced to study spin glasses. The resulting phase diagrams reveal two distinct paramagnetic phases separated by a plane in parameter space in which the biquadratic interaction and crystal-field strength rescale chaotically. Each paramagnetic phase has a ferromagnetic complement in which the unique distribution of occupied sites possesses a net magnetization.     

Singularity of the specific heat of two-dimensional random Ising models

The singularity of the specific heat is studied for the dilution (J>J'>0) type and Gaussian type random Ising models using the Pfaffian method numerically. The type of singularity at the paramagnetic-ferromagnetic phase boundary is studied using the standard regression method using data up to system size. It is shown that the logarithmic type singularity is more reliable than the double-logarithmic type and cusp type singularities. The critical temperatures are estimated accurately for both the dilution type and Gaussian type random Ising models. A phase diagram relating strength of the randomness and temperature is also presented. Received: 26 February 1998 / Revised: 15 May 1998 / Accepted: 25 June 1998     

Magnetic fluids in an external field

Within mean field approximation we investigate the phase diagrams of magnetic fluids in presence of a magnetic field. In a finite field the magnetic phase transition is absent, but instead a line of first order liquid-liquid transitions ending in a critical point occurs for a magnetic interaction, which is sufficiently strong. Varying the magnetic field these critical points extend from the tricritical point at H=0 to a critical endpoint. For a fluid with Ising spins we calculate the critical lines and several tricritical exponents analytically. For Heisenberg fluids we obtain the phase diagrams from a numerical solution of the mean field equations of state. Received 20 March 1998     

Green function method study of the anisotropic ferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a square lattice

We study the phase diagram of the anisotropic ferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a square lattice. We use the double-time Green’s function method within the Callen decoupling approximation. The dependence of the Curie temperature T_c on the spin S and on the anisotropy parameter Δ (Δ=0 and 1 correspond to the isotropic Heisenberg and Ising model, respectively) is obtained explicitly. Our results are in agreement with results obtained from other theoretical approaches.     

Entropy and multi-particle correlations in two-dimensional lattice gases

We analyse the statistical entropy of two-dimensional lattice-gas models in terms of the contributions which arise from space correlations of increasing order. The “residual multiparticle entropy”, defined as the contribution to the excess entropy that is associated with correlations involving more than two particles, is calculated for the Ising and Coulomb lattice gases. The thermodynamic behaviour of the residual multiparticle entropy is then discussed in relation to the phase diagram of the model and the existence of underlying signatures of order-disorder phase transitions is also investigated. Received 31 December 1998 and Received in final form 8 March 1999     

Antiferromagnetic Ising spin glass competing with BCS pairing interaction in a transverse field

The competition among spin glass (SG), antiferromagnetism (AF) and local pairing superconductivity (PAIR) is studied in a two-sublattice fermionic Ising spin glass model with a local BCS pairing interaction in the presence of an applied magnetic transverse field Γ. In the present approach, spins in different sublattices interact with a Gaussian random coupling with an antiferromagnetic mean J₀ and standard deviation J. The problem is formulated in the path integral formalism in which spin operators are represented by bilinear combinations of Grassmann variables. The saddle-point Grand Canonical potential is obtained within the static approximation and the replica symmetric ansatz. The results are analysed in phase diagrams in which the AF and the SG phases can occur for small g (g is the strength of the local superconductor coupling written in units of J), while the PAIR phase appears as unique solution for large g. However, there is a complex line transition separating the PAIR phase from the others. It is second order at high temperature that ends in a tricritical point. The quantum fluctuations affect deeply the transition lines and the tricritical point due to the presence of Γ.     

Condensation and metastability in the 2D Potts model

For the first order transition of the Ising model below , Isakov has proven that the free energy possesses an essential singularity in the applied field. Such a singularity in the control parameter, anticipated by condensation theory, is believed to be a generic feature of first order transitions, but too weak to be observable. We study these issues for the temperature driven transition of the q states 2D Potts model at . Adapting the droplet model to this case, we relate its parameters to the critical properties at and confront the free energy to the many informations brought by previous works. The essential singularity predicted at the transition temperature leads to observable effects in numerical data. On a finite lattice, a metastability domain of temperatures is identified, which shrinks to zero in the thermodynamical limit. Received 30 March 1999     

Efficient algorithm for random-bond ising models in 2D

We present an efficient algorithm for calculating the properties of Ising models in two dimensions, directly in the spin basis, without the need for mapping to fermion or dimer models. The algorithm computes the partition function and correlation functions at a single temperature on any planar network of N Ising spins in O(N;{3/2}) time or less. The method can handle continuous or discrete bond disorder and is especially efficient in the case of bond or site dilution, where it executes in O(NlnN) time near the percolation threshold. We demonstrate its feasibility on the ferromagnetic Ising model and the +/-J random-bond Ising model and discuss the regime of applicability in cases of full frustration such as the Ising antiferromagnet on a triangular lattice.     

Dynamic triggering of a spin-transition by a pulsed magnetic field

We report the first study of the effect of a high pulsed magnetic field on a spin transition complex in the solid state. The high spin fraction was determined by optical reflectivity. Sizeable effects are observed for the well-known spin transition solid Fe(Phen)₂(NCS)₂. In the hysteresis loop temperature range, an increase in the HS fraction is obtained, with an irreversible (reversible) character in the ascending (descending) branch of the loop. The time dependence of the HS fraction provides information on the kinetics of the spin-crossover process at the spin transition. Received 23 February 1999 and Received in final form 8 June 1999