Eur. Phys. J. B 1, 197-204 (1998)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050171

Boundary condition histograms for modulated phases

¹ Department of Physics, Condensed Matter Section, ICTP, P.O. Box 586, 34014, Trieste, Italy
² Laboratoire de Physique des Solides Laboratoire associé au CNRS, Université de Paris-Sud, Bâtiment 510, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
³ Department of Physics Texas A&M University College Station, Texas 77843-4242, USA

Corresponding author: ^a marc@classic.lps.u-psud.fr

Received: 9 September 1997
Revised: 17 October 1997
Accepted: 3 November 1997
Published online: 15 January 1998

Abstract

Boundary conditions strongly affect the results of numerical computations for finite size inhomogeneous or incommensurate structures. We present a method which allows to deal with this problem, both for ground state and for critical properties: it combines fluctuating boundary conditions and specific histogram techniques. Our approach concerns classical systems possessing a continuous symmetry as well as quantum systems. In particular, current-current correlation functions, which probe large scale coherence of the states, can be accurately evaluated. We illustrate our method on a frustrated two dimensional XY model.