A Viewpoint, Model and Theory for Supercooled Liquids

Monte Carlo study of the three-dimensional Coulomb frustrated Ising ferromagnet

We have investigated, by Monte Carlo simulation, the phase diagram of a three-dimensional Ising model with nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic interactions and small, but long-range (Coulombic) antiferromagnetic interactions. We have developed an efficient cluster algorithm and used different lattice sizes and geometries, which allows us to obtain the main characteristics of the temperature-frustration phase diagram. Our finite-size scaling analysis confirms that the melting of the lamellar phases into the paramagnetic phase is driven first order by the fluctuations. Transitions between ordered phases with different modulation patterns are observed in some regions of the diagram, in agreement with a recent mean-field analysis.

Phase diagram of an ising model with long-range frustrating interactions: A theoretical analysis

We present a theoretical study of the phase diagram of a frustrated Ising model with nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic interactions and long-range (Coulombic) antiferromagnetic interactions. For nonzero frustration, long-range ferromagnetic order is forbidden, and the ground state of the system consists of phases characterized by periodically modulated structures. At finite temperatures, the phase diagram is calculated within the mean-field approximation. Below the transition line that separates the disordered and the ordered phases, the frustration-temperature phase diagram displays an infinite number of "flowers," each flower being made by an infinite number of modulated phases generated by structure combination branching processes. The specificities introduced by the long-range nature of the frustrating interaction and the limitation of the mean-field approach are finally discussed.