First-order transition in the XY model on a fully frustrated simple cubic lattice

Statistical Physics Approach to Liquid Crystals: Dynamics of Mobile Potts Model Leading to Smectic Phase, Phase Transition by Wang-Landau Method

We study the nature of the smectic-isotropic phase transition using a mobile 6-state Potts model. Each Potts state represents a molecular orientation. We show that with the choice of an appropriate microscopic Hamiltonian describing the interaction between individual molecules modeled by a mobile 6-state Potts spins, we observe the smectic phase dynamically formed when we cool the molecules from the isotropic phase to low temperatures (T). In order to elucidate the order of the transition and the low-T properties, we use the high-performance Wang-Landau flat energy-histogram technique. We show that the smectic phase goes to the liquid (isotropic) phase by melting/evaporating layer by layer starting from the film surface with increasing T. At a higher T, the whole remaining layers become orientationally disordered. The melting of each layer is characterized by a peak of the specific heat. Such a succession of partial transitions cannot be seen by the Metropolis algorithm. The successive layer meltings/evaporations at low T are found to have a first-order character by examining the energy histogram. These results are in agreement with experiments performed on some smectic liquid crystals.

Nonconvergence of the Wang-Landau algorithms with multiple random walkers

This paper discusses some convergence properties in the entropic sampling Monte Carlo methods with multiple random walkers, particularly in the Wang-Landau (WL) and 1/t algorithms. The classical algorithms are modified by the use of m-independent random walkers in the energy landscape to calculate the density of states (DOS). The Ising model is used to show the convergence properties in the calculation of the DOS, as well as the critical temperature, while the calculation of the number π by multiple dimensional integration is used in the continuum approximation. In each case, the error is obtained separately for each walker at a fixed time, t; then, the average over m walkers is performed. It is observed that the error goes as 1/sqrt[m]. However, if the number of walkers increases above a certain critical value m>m_{x}, the error reaches a constant value (i.e., it saturates). This occurs for both algorithms; however, it is shown that for a given system, the 1/t algorithm is more efficient and accurate than the similar version of the WL algorithm. It follows that it makes no sense to increase the number of walkers above a critical value m_{x}, since it does not reduce the error in the calculation. Therefore, the number of walkers does not guarantee convergence.

Hexagonal-close-packed lattice: Ground state and phase transition

We study the ground state (GS) and the phase transition in a hexagonal-close-packed lattice with both XY and Ising models by using extensive Monte Carlo simulation. We suppose the in-plane interaction J1 and interplane interaction J2, both antiferromagnetic. The system is frustrated with two kinds of GS configuration below and above a critical value of η=J1/J2 (ηc). For the Ising case, one has ηc=0.5 which separates in-plane ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic states, while for the XY case ηc=1/3 separates the collinear and noncollinear spin configurations. The phase transition is shown to be of first (second) order for η>(<)ηc. The phase diagram in the space (η,T) is shown for both cases.

Flat energy-histogram simulation of the phase transition in an Ising fully frustrated lattice

We show in this paper the results of the phase transition of the so-called fully frustrated simple cubic lattice with the Ising spin model. We use here the Monte Carlo method with the flat energy-histogram Wang-Landau technique which is very powerful for detecting weak first-order phase transition. We show that the phase transition is clearly of first order, providing an answer to a question raised 25 years ago.