Competing nematic interactions in a generalized XY model in two and three dimensions.
Phys Rev E
; 94(3-1): 032140, 2016 Sep.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27739795
We study a generalization of the XY model with an additional nematic-like term through extensive numerical simulations and finite-size techniques, both in two and three dimensions. While the original model favors local alignment, the extra term induces angles of 2π/q between neighboring spins. We focus here on the q=8 case (while presenting new results for other values of q as well) whose phase diagram is much richer than the well-known q=2 case. In particular, the model presents not only continuous, standard transitions between Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phases as in q=2, but also infinite-order transitions involving intermediate, competition-driven phases absent for q=2 and 3. Besides presenting multiple transitions, our results show that having vortices decoupling at a transition is not a sufficient condition for it to be of BKT type.
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Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Phys Rev E
Ano de publicação:
2016
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Brasil
País de publicação:
Estados Unidos