Eur. Phys. J. B 18, 275-282 (2000)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510070058

Phase transitions in the mixed Ashkin-Teller model

Laboratoire de Magnétisme et de Physique des Hautes Énergies, Département de Physique, BP 1014, Faculté des Sciences, Rabat, Morocco

Received: 5 July 1999
Revised: 4 July 2000
Published online: 15 November 2000

Abstract

By using a mean-field approximation (MFA) and Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations, we have studied the effect on the phase diagrams of mixed spins ( and S =1) in the Ashkin-Teller model (ATM) on a hypercubic lattice. By varying the strength describing the four spin interaction and the single ion potential, we have obtained by these two methods quite rich phase diagrams with several multicritical points. This model exhibits a new partially ordered phase which does not exist neither in the spin-1/2 ATM nor in the spin-1 ATM. While MFA yields phase diagrams which are sometimes qualitatively incorrect, accurate results are obtained from MC simulations. From the critical exponents which have been calculated using finite-size scaling ideas, we have shown that all phase transitions are Ising-like except for the paramagnetic-Baxter critical surface on which the critical exponents vary continuously, by varying only the strength of the coupling interaction independently of the value of the single ion potential.