First-Order Transition in XY Fully Frustrated Simple Cubic Lattice

V. Thanh Ngo (1) , D. Tien Hoang (1) , Hung The Diep (2)

1 IOP - Institute of Physics, Hanoi
2 LPTM - UMR 8089 - Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modélisation

We study the nature of the phase transition in the fully frustrated simple cubic lattice with the XY spin model. This system is the Villain's model generalized in three dimensions. The ground state is very particular with a 12-fold degeneracy. Previous studies have shown unusual critical properties. With the powerful Wang-Landau flat-histogram Monte Carlo method, we carry out in this work intensive simulations with very large lattice sizes. We show that the phase transition is clearly of first order, putting an end to the uncertainty which has lasted for more than twenty years.

Mots clés: Frustrated Spin Systems; Phase Transition; Monte Carlo simulation; Wang-Landau method

Domaines: Mécanique statistique [cond-mat.stat-mech]

V. Thanh Ngo, D. Tien Hoang, Hung The Diep. First-Order Transition in XY Fully Frustrated Simple Cubic Lattice. 2010. ⟨hal-00480790v2⟩