ON THE LOW-TEMPERATURE ORDERING OF THE 3D ATIFERROMAGNETIC THREE-STATE POTTS MODEL

TL;DR

This paper investigates the low-temperature ordering phenomena of the 3D antiferromagnetic three-state Potts model on a cubic lattice using Monte Carlo simulations, revealing two distinct ordered regimes and challenging previous theoretical predictions.

Contribution

It provides detailed simulation results showing two different low-temperature phases and refutes the recently predicted permutationally symmetric phase.

Findings

Identification of a broken sublattice-symmetry phase at low temperatures

Observation of a phase with restored rotational symmetry near the critical point

Contradiction of the predicted permutationally symmetric phase

Abstract

The antiferromagnetic three-state Potts model on the simple-cubic lattice is studied using Monte Carlo simulations. The ordering in a medium temperature range below the critical point is investigated in detail. Two different regimes have been observed: The so-called broken sublattice-symmetry phase dominates at sufficiently low temperatures, while the phase just below the critical point is characterized by an effectively continuous order parameter and by a fully restored rotational symmetry. However, the later phase is not the permutationally sublattice symmetric phase recently predicted by the cluster variation method.