Universal critical behavior of aperiodic ferromagnetic models

Reentrant and forward phase diagrams of the anisotropic three-dimensional Ising spin glass

The spatially uniaxially anisotropic d=3 Ising spin glass is solved exactly on a hierarchical lattice. Five different ordered phases, namely, ferromagnetic, columnar, layered, antiferromagnetic, and spin-glass phases, are found in the global phase diagram. The spin-glass phase is more extensive when randomness is introduced within the planes than when it is introduced in lines along one direction. Phase diagram cross sections, with no Nishimori symmetry, with Nishimori symmetry lines, or entirely imbedded into Nishimori symmetry, are studied. The boundary between the ferromagnetic and spin-glass phases can be either reentrant or forward, that is either receding from or penetrating into the spin-glass phase, as temperature is lowered. However, this boundary is always reentrant when the multicritical point terminating it is on the Nishimori symmetry line.

Anisotropic Heisenberg model on hierarchical lattices with aperiodic interactions: a renormalization-group approach

Using a real-space renormalization-group approximation, we study the anisotropic quantum Heisenberg model on hierarchical lattices, with interactions following aperiodic sequences. Three different sequences are considered, with relevant and irrelevant fluctuations, according to the Luck-Harris criterion. The phase diagram is discussed as a function of the anisotropy parameter Delta (such that Delta=0 and 1 correspond to the isotropic Heisenberg and Ising models, respectively). We find three different types of phase diagrams, with general characteristics: the isotropic Heisenberg plane is always an invariant one (as expected by symmetry arguments) and the critical behavior of the anisotropic Heisenberg model is governed by fixed points on the Ising-model plane. Our results for the isotropic Heisenberg model show that the relevance or irrelevance of aperiodic models, when compared to their uniform counterpart, is as predicted by the Harris-Luck criterion. A low-temperature renormalization-group procedure was applied to the classical isotropic Heisenberg model in two-dimensional hierarchical lattices: the relevance criterion is obtained, again in accordance with the Harris-Luck criterion.

Phase diagrams and crossover in spatially anisotropic d = 3 Ising, XY magnetic, and percolation systems: exact renormalization-group solutions of hierarchical models

Hierarchical lattices that constitute spatially anisotropic systems are introduced. These lattices provide exact solutions for hierarchical models and, simultaneously, approximate solutions for uniaxially or fully anisotropic d = 3 physical models. The global phase diagrams, with d = 2 and d = 1 to d = 3 crossovers, are obtained for Ising and XY magnetic models and percolation systems, including crossovers from algebraic order to true long-range order.

Tricritical behavior in deterministic aperiodic ising systems

We use a mixed-spin model, with aperiodic ferromagnetic exchange interactions and crystalline fields, to investigate the effects of deterministic geometric fluctuations on first-order transitions and tricritical phenomena. The interactions and the crystal-field parameters are distributed according to some two-letter substitution rules. From a Migdal-Kadanoff real-space renormalization-group calculation, which turns out to be exact on a suitable hierarchical lattice, we show that the effects of aperiodicity are qualitatively similar for tricritical and simple critical behavior. In particular, the fixed point associated with tricritical behavior becomes fully unstable beyond a certain threshold dimension (which depends on the aperiodicity), and is replaced by a two-cycle that controls a weakened and temperature-depressed tricritical singularity.