Inverted Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless Singularity and High-Temperature Algebraic Order in an Ising Model on a Scale-Free Hierarchical-Lattice Small-World Network

TL;DR

This paper presents exact results for an Ising model on a hierarchical, scale-free small-world network, revealing a novel inverted BKT phase transition and continuous variation of critical exponents with network parameters.

Contribution

It introduces an exact analysis of the Ising model on a scale-free hierarchical small-world network, discovering a new inverted BKT singularity and detailed critical behavior.

Findings

Identification of a new inverted BKT phase transition for p >= 0.494

Continuous variation of critical exponents with network parameter p

Power-law critical behavior with corrections for long-range interactions

Abstract

We have obtained exact results for the Ising model on a hierarchical lattice with a scale-free degree distribution, high clustering coefficient, and small-world behavior. By varying the probability p of long-range bonds, the entire spectrum from an unclustered, non-small-world network to a highly-clustered, small-world system is studied. We obtain analytical expressions for the degree distribution P(k) and clustering coefficient C for all p, as well as the average path length l for p=0 and 1. The Ising model on this network is studied through an exact renormalization-group transformation of the quenched bond probability distribution, using up to 562,500 probability bins to represent the distribution. For p < 0.494, we find power-law critical behavior of the magnetization and susceptibility, with critical exponents continuously varying with p, and exponential decay of correlations away from T_c. For p >= 0.494, where the network exhibits small-world character, the critical behavior radically changes: We find a highly unusual phase transition, namely an inverted Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless singularity, between a low-temperature phase with non-zero magnetization and finite correlation length and a high-temperature phase with zero magnetization and infinite correlation length. Approaching T_c from below, the magnetization and the susceptibility respectively exhibit the singularities of exp(-C/sqrt(T_c-T)) and exp(D/sqrt(T_c-T)), with C and D positive constants. With long-range bond strengths decaying with distance, we see a phase transition with power-law critical singularities for all p, an unusually narrow critical region and important corrections to power-law behavior that depend on the exponent characterizing the decay of long-range interactions.