Aperiodicity-Induced Second-Order Phase Transition in the 8-State Potts Model

TL;DR

This study explores how aperiodic exchange interactions induce a second-order phase transition in the 2D 8-state Potts model, revealing new critical behavior through Monte Carlo simulations.

Contribution

It demonstrates that strong aperiodic fluctuations can change the phase transition order and identifies new critical exponents at the fixed point.

Findings

A second-order phase transition occurs with strong aperiodic fluctuations.

Critical exponents β/ν and γ/ν are determined at the new fixed point.

Aperiodicity can alter the universality class of the model.

Abstract

We investigate the critical behavior of the two-dimensional 8-state Potts model with an aperiodic distribution of the exchange interactions between nearest-neighbor rows. The model is studied numerically through intensive Monte Carlo simulations using the Swendsen-Wang cluster algorithm. The transition point is located through duality relations, and the critical behavior is investigated using FSS techniques at criticality. For strong enough fluctuations of the aperiodic sequence under consideration, a second order phase transition is found. The exponents $\beta/\nu$ and $\gamma /\nu$ are obtained at the new fixed point.