Phase diagrams of weakly anisotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnets: I. Quasi 1-dimensional systems

By utilizing the concept of effective field-dependent anisotropy, it is argued that the field-induced transitions in a weakly anisotropic quasi 1-d Heisenberg antiferromagnet are “classical examples” of soliton-mediated phase transitions. For any T > 0 the “spinflop transition” is probably absent; if it still occurs, it is no longer first order as in 3-d. Excellent agreement with data on (CH₃)₄ NMnCL₃ and K₂FeF₅ is found.     

Phase diagrams of weakly anisotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnets: III. Nonlinear excitations and random fields in quasi 2-dimensional systems

The concept of effective field-dependent anisotropy is applied to the “spinflop” transition in the quasi 2-d Heisenberg antiferromagnet with weak orthorhombic anisotropy. From the correspondence between the “spinflop” problem and the commensurate-incommensurate transtion it follows that the “spinflop” is not first order and that random fields may cause domain-wall formation. This would explain the observed broadening of the “spinflop” in K₂MnF₄. In 3-d antiferromagnets such anomalous broadening is not observed, which would agree with the critical dimensionality d_c = 2 for the random-field problem.     

Critical temperatures of the anisotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnets

The first eight terms of the high temperature series expansions for the mean-square fluctuations of the magnetization variables are derived for the spin $\text{?}\text{1}\text{2}$ anisotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnets. The antiferromagnetic critical temperatures are determined for the s.c. and b.c.c. lattices.     

Extended Schwinger-Boson theory of the two-dimensional spin-1/2 anisotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnets

The properties of the possible solitary electromagnetic waves, propagating in two-dimensional SIS Josephson junction without dissipative losses are investigated on the basis of the local theory of the junction. A classification of the waves in the junction with respect to the Swihart velocity is made. It is shown that allowed and forbidden areas for the wave numbers, wave frequency and wave amplitude exist. The cut-off frequency for the solitary waves which velocity is greater than the Swihart velocity can be smaller than the Josephson plasma frequency and moreover these waves can propagate only in a junction that is large in the direction perpendicular to the propagation direction. On the contrary the solitary waves which velocity is smaller than the Swihart velocity request junction size in the above direction to be smaller than a critical one. The investigated two-dimensional solitary waves can be connected with one or two quanta of the magnetic flux.     

Phase transition at marginal dimensionality — Quasi 2d Heisenberg magnets

The thermodynamics of the 2d and layered Heisenberg magnet is investigated by a low temperature renormalization group approach. The theory predicts deviations from scaling by powers of T.     

Phase diagrams of lattice systems with residual entropy. II. Low temperature expansion

For some lattice systems with an infinite number of ground states, it is shown that the pressure and the coexistence surfaces of several phases admit asymptotic expansions aroundT=0. In particular, it follows that the coexistence surfaces are differentiable atT=0, and at low temperatures the stable states are those with maximal residual entropy. The results are applied to construct the phase diagrams for several spin-1 models.     

Detection of XY behavior in weakly anisotropic quantum antiferromagnets on the square lattice

We consider the Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the square lattice with S=1/2 and very weak easy-plane exchange anisotropy; by means of the quantum Monte Carlo method, based on the continuous-time loop algorithm, we find that the thermodynamics of the model is highly sensitive to the presence of tiny anisotropies and is characterized by a crossover between isotropic and planar behavior. We discuss the mechanism underlying the crossover phenomenon and show that it occurs at a temperature which is characteristic of the model. The expected Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition is observed below the crossover: a finite range of temperatures consequently opens for experimental detection of noncritical 2D XY behavior. Direct comparison is made with uniform susceptibility data relative to the S=1/2 layered antiferromagnet Sr2CuO2Cl2.     

Phase diagrams of Ising models on Husimi trees II. Pair Wand multisite interaction systems

We continue an earlier study of multisite interaction Ising spin models on Husimi trees. In particular, attention is given to systems with both a nearestneighbor pair interaction and three-site interactions. We use our calculations of the phase diagrams of the systems on Husimi trees as approximations of systems with the same interactions but on a regular lattice, e.g., the triangle lattice. Specific models where exact results are available are used as test cases. All of the work involves computation of quantities, such as the magnetization, by iterative processes. Hence we are dealing with a discrete map and for certain values of the interaction strengths we obtain for the magnetization diagram results involving period doubling, chaos, period-three windows, etc., all phenomena of recent interest in connection with dynamical systems and now associated with certain Ising spin systems.     

Replica symmetry breaking transition of the weakly anisotropic Heisenberg spin glass in magnetic fields

The spin and the chirality orderings of the three-dimensional Heisenberg spin glass with the weak random anisotropy are studied under applied magnetic fields by equilibrium Monte Carlo simulations. A replica symmetry breaking transition occurs in the chiral sector accompanied by the simultaneous spin-glass order. The ordering behavior differs significantly from that of the Ising spin glass, despite the similarity in the global symmetry. Our observation is consistent with the spin-chirality decoupling-recoupling scenario of a spin-glass transition.     

Phase transitions in 2-dimensional systems of migrating orientable lattice defects

Phase transitions are studied in a system consisting of reorientating and migrating point defects in a two dimensional lattice. Due to the long range (r ^–2) nature of the dominant elastic interaction, surface effects are of central importance and have to be included. After diagonalizing the elastic interaction energy for defects characterized by arbitrary elastic dipole tensors the free energy of the system is minimized with respect to the tensor defect density (which describes the defect distribution in space and over a discrete number of orientations). Different types of phase transitions are obtained depending on the magnitude of the defect anisotropy. The phase below the paraelastic one is characterized for large by an anisotropic but homogeneous distribution, for small by an anisotropic and inhomogeneous distribution with a non linear space dependence. Similarities and differences with 3d results for=0 (or small) are discussed.     

Phase diagrams of lattice systems with residual entropy

We introduce an equivalence relation on the family of ground states and generalize the Peierls and Pirogov-Sinai theory of phase transitions to systems with residual entropy. The idea consists in the replacement of the periodic ground states by equivalence classes together with an entropy factor. We apply these results to discuss the phase diagrams of diluted spin-1/2 systems.On leave of absence from the Central Research Institute for Physics, Budapest, Hungary.     

Elementary excitations of quantum critical (2+1)-dimensional antiferromagnets

It has been proposed that there are degrees of freedom intrinsic to quantum critical points that can contribute to quantum critical physics. We point out that this conclusion is quite general below the upper critical dimension. We show that in (2+1)D antiferromagnets Skyrmion excitations are stable at criticality and identify them as the critical excitations. We find exact solutions composed of Skyrmion and anti-Skyrmion superpositions, which we call topolons. We include the topolons in the partition function and renormalize by integrating out small size topolons and short wavelength spin waves. We obtain a correlation length exponent nu=0.690 666 and anomalous dimension eta=0.0166.     

Phase diagrams and magnetic properties of diluted Ising and Heisenberg magnets with competing interactions

Ising and Heisenberg magnets with nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic exchangeJ ₁ and next-nearest antiferromagnetic exchangeJ ₂ and randomly distributed frozen-in nonmagnetic impurities of arbitrary concentration 1–x are studied by several methods: systematic series expansions inx, 1–x and inverse temperature (1/T) as well as Monte Carlo simulation. Depending onRJ ₂/J ₁,T andx the model is in paramagnetic, ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic or spin glass phases. The microscopic magnetic structures of all these phases are investigated and found to be more complicated than usually (e.g., the ferromagnetic state contains spins and clusters either aligned antiparallel or not aligned at all, when frustration effects make bonds ineffective). We suggest that the concentrationx _c of magnetic ions below which no (anti-)ferromagnetic long range order occurs depends onR continuously, andx _c 1 at the multicritical point (R _m ,T=0) where the order changes from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic. Our results for phase diagram, susceptibility etc. are compared to recent data on the Eu _x Sr_1–x S system and very good agreement is found.     

Anomalous curie response of impurities in quantum-critical spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnets

We consider a magnetic impurity in two different S=1/2 Heisenberg bilayer antiferromagnets at their respective critical interlayer couplings separating Néel and disordered ground states. We calculate the impurity susceptibility using a quantum Monte Carlo method. With intralayer couplings in only one of the layers (Kondo lattice), we observe an anomalous Curie constant C*, as predicted on the basis of field-theoretical work [S. Sachdev, Science 286, 2479 (1999)10.1126/science.286.5449.2479]. The value C* = 0.262 +/- 0.002 is larger than the normal Curie constant C=S(S+1)/3. Our low-temperature results for a symmetric bilayer are consistent with a universal C*.     

Pourbaix diagrams in weakly coupled systems: a case study involving acridinol and phenanthridinol pseudobases

The thermodynamics of proton‐coupled electron transfer (PCET) in weakly coupled organic pseudobases was investigated using 2,7‐dimethyl‐9‐hydroxy‐9‐phenyl‐10‐tolyl‐9,10‐dihydroacridine (AcrOH) and 6‐phenylphenanthridinol (PheOH) as model compounds. Pourbaix diagrams for two model compounds were constructed using the oxidation potentials and the pK_a values obtained, respectively, from cyclic voltammetry and photometric titrations. Our comparative study reveals the importance of having the redox active –N center closer to –OH functionality on the thermodynamics of PCET process: PheOH exhibits a wider range of pH values (pH = 2.8 to 13.3) in which both the alcohol and the corresponding alkoxy radical are expected to coexist in solution. This result indicates that a concerted mechanism is more likely to be discovered in pseudobases analogous to PheOH. The thermochemical data also indicate that the concerted PCET mechanism cannot be achieved if water is used as the proton acceptor: assuming the pK_a of hydronium ions as ?1.7, the PCET involving PheOH or AcrOH as proton/electron donors and water as the proton acceptor is expected to follow the stepwise ET/PT mechanism. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.