First and second order transition of frustrated Heisenberg spin systems

Starting from the hypothesis of a second order transition we have studied modifications of the original Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a stacked triangular lattice (STA-model) by the Monte Carlo technique. The change is a local constraint restricting the spins at the corners of selected triangles to add up to zero without stopping them from moving freely (STAR-model). We have studied also the closely related dihedral and trihedral models which can be classified as Stiefel models. We have found indications of a first order transition for all three modified models instead of a universal critical behavior. This is in accordance with the renormalization group investigations but disagrees with the Monte Carlo simulations of the original STA-model favoring a new universality class. For the corresponding x-y antiferromagnet studied before, the second order nature of the transition could also not be confirmed. Received 17 May 1999 and Received in final form 30 July 1999     

Chiral Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in the frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a pyrochlore slab

Ordering of the geometrically frustrated two-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a pyrochlore slab is studied by Monte Carlo simulations. In contrast to the kagomé Heisenberg antiferromagnet, the model exhibits locally noncoplanar spin structures at low temperatures, bearing nontrivial chiral degrees of freedom. Under certain conditions, the model exhibits a novel Kosterlitz-Thouless-type transition at a finite temperature associated with these chiral degrees of freedom.     

Possible phase transition of anisotropic frustrated Heisenberg model at finite temperature

The frustrated spin-1/2 J_1a–J_1b–J₂ antiferromagnet with anisotropy on the two-dimensional square lattice was investigated, where the parameters J_1aand J_1b represent the nearest neighbor exchanges and along the x and y directions, respectively. J₂ represents the next-nearest neighbor exchange. The anisotropy includes the spatial and exchange anisotropies. Using the double-time Green’s function method, the effects of the interplay of exchanges and anisotropy on the possible phase transition of the Néel state and stripe state were discussed. Our results indicated that, in the case of anisotropic parameter 0≤η<1, the Néel and stripe states can exist and have the same critical temperature as long as J₂ = J_1b/2. Under such parameters, a first-order phase transformation between the Néel and stripe states can occur below the critical point. For J₂ ≠J_1b/2, our results indicate that the Néel and stripe states can also exist, while their critical temperatures differ. When J₂>J_1b/2, a first-order phase transformation between the two states may also occur. However, for J₂<J_1b/2, the Néel state is always more stable than the stripe state.     

Phase transition in Ising, XY and Heisenberg magnetic films

The phase transition and magnetic properties of a ferromagnet spin-S, a disordered diluted thin and semi-infinite film with a face-centered cubic lattice are investigated using the high-temperature series expansions technique extrapolated with Padé approximants method for Heisenberg, XY and Ising models. The reduced critical temperature of the system τ_c is studied as function of the thickness of the thin film and the exchange interactions in the bulk, and within the surfaces J_b, J_s and J_⊥, respectively. It is found that τ_c increases with the exchange interactions of surface. The magnetic phase diagrams (τ_c versus the dilution x) and the percolation threshold are obtained. The shifts of the critical temperatures T_c(l) from the bulk value (T_c(∞)/T_c(l) − 1) can be described by a power law l^−λ, where λ = 1/υ is the inverse of the correlation length exponent.     

Comparison of diluted antiferromagnetic Ising models on frustrated lattices in a magnetic field

We study diluted antiferromagnetic Ising models on triangular and kagome lattices in a magnetic field, using the replica-exchange Monte Carlo method. We observe seven and five plateaus in the magnetization curve of the diluted antiferromagnetic Ising model on the triangular and kagome lattices, respectively, when a magnetic field is applied. These observations contrast with the two plateaus observed in the pure model. The origin of multiple plateaus is investigated by considering the spin configuration of triangles in the diluted models. We compare these results with those of a diluted antiferromagnetic Ising model on the three-dimensional pyrochlore lattice in a magnetic field pointing in the [111] direction, sometimes referred to as the “kagome-ice” problem. We discuss the similarity and dissimilarity of the magnetization curves of the “kagome-ice” state and the two-dimensional kagome lattice.     

Ising transition in the two-dimensional quantum J1-J2 Heisenberg model

We study the thermodynamics of the spin-S two-dimensional quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the square lattice with nearest (J1) and next-nearest (J2) neighbor couplings in its collinear phase (J(2)/J(1)>0.5), using the pure-quantum self-consistent harmonic approximation. Our results show the persistence of a finite-temperature Ising phase transition for every value of the spin, provided that the ratio J(2)/J(1) is greater than a critical value corresponding to the onset of collinear long-range order at zero temperature. We also calculate the spin and temperature dependence of the collinear susceptibility and correlation length, and we discuss our results in light of the experiments on Li2VOSiO4 and related compounds.     

Nonequilibrium dynamical phase transition of 3D kinetic Ising／Heisenberg spin system

We have studied the nonequilibrium dynamic phase transitions of both three-dimensional (3D) kinetic Ising and Heisenberg spin systems in the presence of a perturbative magnetic field by Monte Carlo simulation. The feature of the phase transition is characterized by studying the distribution of the dynamical order parameter. In the case of anisotropic Ising spin system (ISS), the dynamic transition is discontinuous and continuous under low and high temperatures respectively, which indicates the existence of a tri-critical point (TCP) on the phase boundary separating low-temperature order phase and high-temperature disorder phase. The TCP shifts towards the higher temperature region with the decrease of frequency, i.e. T_{TCP}=1.33×exp(-ω/30.7). In the case of the isotropic Heisenberg spin system (HSS), however, the situation on dynamic phase transition of HSS is quite different from that of ISS in that no stable dynamical phase transition was observed in kinetic HSS after a threshold time. The evolution of magnetization in the HSS driven by a symmetrical external field after a certain duration always tends asymptotically to a disorder state no matter what an initial state the system starts with. The threshold time τ depends upon the amplitude H_{0}, reduced temperature T/T_C and the frequency ω as τ=C·ω^α·H_0^{-β}·(T/T_C)^{-γ}.     

Unconventional state with two coexisting long-range orders for frustrated Heisenberg model at quantum phase transition

For the frustrated two-dimensional S=1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model close to quantum phase transition we consider the singlet ground states retaining both translational and SU(2) symmetry. Besides usually discussed checkerboard, spin-liquid and stripe states an unconventional state with two coexisting long-range orders appears to be possible at sufficiently large damping of spin excitations. The problem is treated in the frames of self-consistent spherically symmetric approach.     

A geometric interpretation of the roughening transition in Ising models

Progress in the area of the Ising model roughening transition has previously been limited by the lack of a good definition for the interface separating the pure phases. In the present work, a graphical definition is introduced and it is shown that roughening occurs precisely when this interface fluctuates to infinity.     

On the damping in the two-dimensional frustrated Heisenberg model

The influence of damping on the phase diagram of two-dimensional S=1/2 frustrated Heisenberg model is investigated. The damping is introduced semiphenomenologically in the frames of self-consistent spherically-symmetric approach for spin Green's functions. The comparison of the results with numerical calculations shows that the damping γ is significant (γ∼0.5) at the point of checkerboard long-range loss (frustration parameter p?0.275). The role of the vertex corrections is also investigated.     

Applications of the interface approach to some frustrated Ising models on a simple cubic lattice

Three 3-dimensional frustrated Ising models are studied by the interface method. We calculate the interface free energies by Monte Carlo simulation, and estimate the critical temperatures with a size-dependent analysis of the interface free energies.     

Investigation of frustrated and dimerized classical Heisenberg chains

We have considered the 1D dimerized frustrated antiferromagnetic (ferromagnetic) Heisenberg model with arbitrary spin S$S$. The exact classical magnetic phase diagram at zero temperature is determined using the LK cluster method. The cluster method results show that the classical ground-state phase diagram of the model is very rich, including first-order and second-order phase transitions. In the absence of dimerization, a second-order phase transition occurs between antiferromagnetic (ferromagnetic) and spiral phases at the critical frustration _αc=±0.25${\alpha }_c=\pm 0.25$, a well-known result. In the vicinity of the critical points _αc${\alpha }_c$, the exact classical critical exponent of the spiral order parameter is found to be 1/2$1/2$. In the case of a dimerized chain (δ≠0$\delta \ne 0$), the spiral order shows stability and exists in some part of the ground-state phase diagram. We have found two first-order phase boundaries separating antiferromagnetic (uud and duu) phases from the spiral phase.     

Many-Body Localization Transition in the Heisenberg Ising Chain

In this paper, we use exact matrix diagonalization to explore the many-body localization (MBL) transition of the Heisenberg Ising spin-1/2 chain with nearest neighbor couplings and disordered external fields. It demonstrates that the fidelity, magnetization and spin-spin space correlation can be used to characterize the many-body localization transition in this closed spin system which is also in agreement with previous analytical and numerical results. We test the properties for the middle third many-body eigenstates. It shows that for this model with random-field, the excited-state fidelity exhibits a pronounced drop at the transition and then gradually tends to be stable in the localized phase, the critical point and the final value of averaged fidelity are all size dependent. It demonstrates that disordered external fields drive the occurrence of the MBL transition. Moreover, we investigate the magnetization and spin-spin space correlation in this model to verify the conclusion we got and further explore the properties of ergodic phase and localized phase.