Transient dynamical behavior and phase transitions in magnetic systems

It was recently suggested that transient dynamical properties were of some use to predict equilibrium critical properties of 2D and 3D models of statistical mechanics on the lattice. We investigate such dynamical properties for three related models with competitive interactions, namely the ANNNI model, the brickwork model, and the BNNNI model. In spite of known differences in their equilibrium phase diagrams, our simulations display similar transient dynamical behaviors for all three models. The reliability of this method for probing equilibrium properties seems therefore questionable even for rather simple magnetic models without any structural disorder.On leave from Centre de Physique Théorique, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128, Palaiseau Cedex, France.