Phase diagrams of classical spin fluids: the influence of an external magnetic field on the liquid-gas transition

TL;DR

This study investigates how external magnetic fields affect the liquid-gas phase transition in classical spin fluids, using theoretical and simulation methods to reveal model-dependent behaviors of critical temperature changes.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the magnetic field influence on phase transitions in Ising, XY, and Heisenberg spin fluids, including analytical expressions and simulation validation.

Findings

Critical temperature decreases monotonically for Ising fluids with increasing magnetic field.

Nonmonotonic behavior of T_c(H) observed in XY and Heisenberg models.

Analytical expressions for T_c(H) in the large field limit are derived.

Abstract

The influence of an external magnetic field on the liquid-gas phase transition in Ising, XY, and Heisenberg spin fluid models is studied using a modified mean field theory and Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo simulations. It is demonstrated that the theory is able to reproduce quantitatively all characteristic features of the field dependence of the critical temperature T_c(H) for all the three models. These features include a monotonic decrease of T_c with rising H in the case of the Ising fluid as well as a more complicated nonmonotonic behavior for the XY and Heisenberg models. The nonmonotonicity consists in a decrease of T_c with increasing H at weak external fields, an increase of T_c with rising H in the strong field regime, and the existence of a minimum in T_c(H) at intermediate values of H. Analytical expressions for T_c(H) in the large field limit are presented as well. The magnetic para-ferro phase transition is also considered in simulations and described within the mean field theory.