The three-dimensional three-state Potts ferromagnet exposed to random fields: evidence for a second order transition

Using large scale Monte Carlo simulations, the ordering of the three-dimensional three state Potts ferromagnet exposed to random fields is investigated. Studies of the order parameter probability distribution and of various of its moments suggest that the order of the transition depends on the strength of the random field: i.e., the first order transition of the pure ferromagnetic model persists for weak random fields, but turns into a second order transition for a range of random fields of medium strength. For large random fields the transition seems to be first order again. In this range large domains of strongly aligned Potts spins occur already in the disordered phase and the associated slow relaxation hampers significantly the Monte Carlo study of thermodynamic equilibrium phenomena. These results are discussed in the light of current theoretical concepts. Possible applications to experiments on diluted anisotropic molecular crystals and orientational glasses are briefly mentioned.     

The Phase Transition in the Three-State Potts Model: An Analytical Analysis

Weinvestigate thephase transition of the three-state Potts model in an analytical approachthe generalized cumtilant expansion with the effective mean field Itypothesis. We find a first order phase transition in the three-dimensional three-state Pot ts model with ferromagnetic nearest neighbor (nn) coupling. For the model with antiferromagnetic next-to-nearest neighbor (nnn) coupling, pe find a first order transition when tlle relative strength of the nnncoupling γ is fixed to -0.2. The critical values given by this method are also in agreement with the recent high statistics Monte Carlo results.     

Singular renormalization group transformations and first order phase transitions (II). Monte Carlo renormalization group results

The first order phase transitions in the two-dimensional 10-state Potts model and in the two-dimensional Ising model with magnetic field are studied with Monte Carlo renormalization group methods. The deconfining phase transition of the four-dimensional U(1) lattice gauge theory is treated similarly. The results are not consistent with the standard discontinuity fixed point picture of first order phase transitions. In the U(1) case, where this possibility exists, they are not consistent with a second order phase transition either. The results show a discontinuous flow on the first order transition surface, which is a Monte Carlo renormalization group signal of singular RG transformations.     

Monte Carlo simulation of the three-dimensional Potts model

The phase transition of the three-dimensional 3-state Potts model at zero field is investigated by a careful Monte Carlo analysis. The transition is found to be of first order. Fluctuations appear to be very strong and critical exponents can be defined with reasonable accuracy. The results are compared with those of the 4-state Potts model.     

Phase Diagram of 2 × 2 Adsorbates at Surfaces with Hexagonal Symmetry

The phase diagram of a lattice-gas model for 2 2 2 adsorbates at surfaces with hexagonal symmetry has been investigated by Monte Carlo simulations. The model relies on repulsive interactions between the particles for distances up to second nearest neighbor sites. It is shown that first- or second-order phase transitions take place depending on the strength of the interactions. Strong first- or second-neighbor interactions are responsible for a first-order transition while for intermediate interaction strength a second-order transition is possible. The critical exponent for the susceptibility shows the expected value of the four-states Potts model in case of a second-order transition. The value of the critical exponent is reduced when the transition changes from first to second order.     

Monte Carlo investigation of the phase transition in the 2D Potts model with open boundary conditions

Finite size effects on the phase transition in the 2D Potts model with open boundary conditions are studied with Wang-Landau Monte Carlo simulations. We show the lattice size dependent cross-over from first order to continuous phase transition and discuss it in terms of surface induced disorder and size dependence of the latent heat.     

Determination of the phase structure of the four-dimensional coupled gauge-Higgs Potts model

Using Monte Carlo simulations the phase structure of the four-dimensional N-state gauge Potts model coupled to Higgs fields is determined. A three-phase diagram is established. In the Z(2) case, a first and a second-order transition lines are present. For Z(5) and Z(10) only first-order transition lines appear. The results are consistent with previous mean field predictions.     

Image restoration using the chiral Potts spin glass

We report on the image reconstruction (IR) problem by making use of the random chiral q-state Potts model, whose Hamiltonian possesses the same gauge invariance as the usual Ising spin glass model. We show that the pixel representation by means of the Potts variables is suitable for the gray-scale level image which cannot be represented by the Ising model. We find that the IR quality is highly improved by the presence of a glassy term, besides the usual ferromagnetic term under random external fields, as very recently pointed out by Nishimori and Wong. We give the exact solution of the infinite range model with q=3, the three-gray-scale-level case. In order to check our analytical result and the efficiency of our model, two-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out on real-world pictures with three and eight gray-scale levels.     

Potts Model on Maple Leaf Lattice with Pure Three-Site Interaction

We use Monte Carlo method to study three-state Potts model on maple leaf lattice with pure three-site interaction. The critical behavior of both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic cases is studied. Our results confirm that the critical behavior of the ferromagnetic model is independent of the lattice details and lies in the universality class of the three-state ferromagnetic Potts model. For the antiferromagnetic case the transition is of the first order. We have calculated the energy jump and critical temperature in this area. We find there is a tricritical point separating the first order and second order phases for this system.     

Finite-size effects and phase transition in the three-dimensional three-state Potts model

The three-state Potts model in three dimensions is studied by Monte Carlo and finite-size scaling techniques. Using a histogram method recently proposed by Ferrenberg and Swendsen, the finite-size dependence for the maximum of the specific heat is found to scale with the volume of the system, indicating that the phase transition is of first order. The value of the latent heat per spin and the correlation length at the transition are estimated.     

Monte Carlo simulation of the two-dimensional Potts model using nonextensive statistics

The standard Potts model is investigated in the framework of nonextensive statistical mechanics. We performed Monte Carlo simulations on two-dimensional lattices with linear sizes ranging from 16 to 64 using the Metropolis algorithm, where the classical Boltzmann–Gibbs transition probabilities were modified for the nonextensive case. We found that the Potts model undergoes a phase transition in the nonextensive scenario. We established the order of the phase transition and we computed the critical temperature for different values of the Tsallis entropic index.     

Effects of quenched disorder in the two-dimensional Potts model: a Monte Carlo study

Motivated by recent experiments on phase behavior of systems confined in porous media, we have studied the effect of randomness on the nature of the phase transition in the two-dimensional Potts model. To model the effects of the porous matrix we introduce a random distribution of couplings P(J(ij))=pdelta(J(ij)-J1)+(1-p)delta(J(ij)-J2) in the q state Potts Hamiltonian. An extensive Monte Carlo study is made on this system for q=5. We studied two different cases of disorder (a) J(1)/J(2)-->infinity and p=0.8 and (b) J(1)/J(2)=10 and p=0.5. We observed, in both cases, that the weak first order transition that appears in the pure case, changes to a second-order transition. A finite size scaling analysis shows that the correlation length exponent nu is close to 1 and the best fit to the dependence of the specific heat on system size is logarithmic. This suggests that both cases belong to the universality class of the Ising model. In contrast, the magnetic exponents point to a different universality class.     

Short-time dynamics and critical behavior of three-dimensional bond-diluted Potts model

The short-time dynamics of the three-dimensional bond-diluted 4-state Potts model is investigated with Monte Carlo simulations. A recently suggested nonequilibrium reweighting method is applied, and the tricritical point is determined with the short-time dynamic approach. Based on the dynamic scaling form, both the dynamic and static critical exponents are estimated for the second order phase transition. Dynamic corrections to scaling are carefully considered.     

Phase transitions in the two-dimensional ferro- and antiferromagnetic potts models on a triangular lattice

The phase transitions in the two-dimensional ferro- and antiferromagnetic Potts models with q = 3 states of spin on a triangular lattice are studied using cluster algorithms and the classical Monte Carlo method. Systems with linear sizes L = 20–120 are considered. The method of fourth-order Binder cumulants and histogram analysis are used to discover that a second-order phase transition occurs in the ferromagnetic Potts model and a first-order phase transition takes place in the antiferromagnetic Potts model. The static critical indices of heat capacity (α), magnetic susceptibility (γ), magnetization (β), and correlation radius index (ν) are calculated for the ferromagnetic Potts model using the finite-size scaling theory.     

二维随机三角点阵上三态和四态Potts模型的蒙特—卡罗重整化群研究

本文用改进的蒙特-卡罗重整化群方法对二维随机三角点阵上的三态和四态Potts模型进行研究,分析它们的固定点及临界指数,所得的临界指数与理论的分析值符合很好。     

Droplets in two-dimensional Ising and Potts models

Droplets on a wall and droplets around a nucleus in the center of the lattice are studied in the two-dimensional Ising and three-state Potts models using Monte Carlo techniques. Finite-size effects are discussed by applying a scaling argument and by relating the shape of a droplet to a random walk.     

Phase transitions in three-dimensional three-state Potts model

We have performed a Monte Carlo investigation of the nature of the phase transition in the three-state, three-dimensional Potts model with nearest and next nearest neighbour coupling. We find strong evidence for a first-order phase transition in the case of ferromagnetic coupling. In the case of a first neighbour ferromagnetic coupling and second neighbour antiferromagnetic, there is evidence for a second-order transition. This result supports the idea that a second-order transition can be present in systems which, according to the Landau criterium, should only undergo a first-order transition.     

Precursor phenomena in frustrated systems

To understand the origin of the dynamical transition, between high-temperature exponential relaxation and low-temperature nonexponential relaxation, that occurs well above the static transition in glassy systems, a frustrated spin model, with and without disorder, is considered. The model has two phase transitions, the lower being a standard spin glass transition (in the presence of disorder) or fully frustrated Ising (in the absence of disorder), and the higher being a Potts transition. Monte Carlo results clarify that in the model with (or without) disorder the precursor phenomena are related to the Griffiths (or Potts) transition. The Griffiths transition is a vanishing transition which occurs above the Potts transition and is present only when disorder is present, while the Potts transition which signals the effect due to frustration is always present. These results suggest that precursor phenomena in frustrated systems are due either to disorder and/or to frustration, giving a consistent interpretation also for the limiting cases of Ising spin glass and of Ising fully frustrated model, where also the Potts transition is vanishing. This interpretation could play a relevant role in glassy systems beyond the spin systems case.     

Monte Carlo study of phase transitions in the bond-diluted 3D 4-state Potts model

Large-scale Monte Carlo simulations of the bond-diluted three-dimensional 4-state Potts model are performed. The phase diagram and the physical properties at the phase transitions are studied using finite-size scaling techniques. Evidences are given for the existence of a tricritical point dividing the phase diagram into a regime where the transitions remain of first order and a second regime where the transitions are softened to continuous ones by the influence of disorder. In the former regime, the nature of the transition is essentially clarified through an analysis of the energy probability distribution. In the latter regime critical exponents are estimated. Rare and typical events are identified and their role is qualitatively discussed in both regimes.     

Effects of the screening breakdown in the diffusion-limited aggregation model

Several models based on the diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) model were proposed and their scaling properties explored by computational and theoretical approaches. In this paper, we consider a new extension of the on-lattice DLA model in which the unitary random steps are replaced by random flights of fixed length. This procedure reduces the screening for particle penetration present in the original DLA model and, consequently, generates new pattern classes. The patterns have DLA-like scaling properties at small length of the random flights. However, as the flight size increases, the patterns are initially round and compact but become fractal for sufficiently large clusters. Their radius of gyration and number of particles at the cluster surface scale asymptotically as in the original DLA model. The transition between compact and fractal patterns is characterized by wavelength selection, and 1/k noise was observed far from the transition.Received: 2 March 2004, Published online: 14 December 2004PACS: 05.40.Fb Random walks and Levy flights - 05.50. + q Lattice theory and statistics (Ising, Potts, etc.) - 05.10.Ln Monte Carlo methods