Superdegenerate point in FCC phase diagram: CVM and Monte Carlo investigations

We investigate the topology of the phase diagram of binary alloys on the fee lattice with first-neighbor antiferromagnetic interactions around the superdegenerate point, where the L1₀ and L1₂ phases meet. We treat the system as a hard-constraint lattice gas, following a procedure previously described by Lebowitzet al. We perform cluster variation method calculations in theT0 limit and Monte Carlo simulations directly atT=0 K on the ground states of the superdegenerate point. We find that: (i) there is no disordered phase in the neighborhood of this point; (ii) a phase L for which two of the four cubic sublattices have the same average occupancy and each of the two others are different appears between L1₀ and L1₂; (iii) the transition L/L1₂ is of first order.