Chiral mixed phase in disordered 3d Heisenberg models

Using Monte Carlo simulations, we compute the spin stiffness of a site-random 3d Heisenberg model with competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions. Our results for the pure limit yield values of the the critical temperature and the critical exponent $\nu$ in excellent agreement with previous high precision studies. In the disordered case, a mixed "chiral" phase is found which may be in the same universality class as 3d Heisenberg spin glasses.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted in PRB Rapid Communication

Critical properties of a continuous family of XY noncollinear magnets

Monte Carlo methods are used to study a family of three dimensional XY frustrated models interpolating continuously between the stacked triangular antiferromagnets and a variant of this model for which a local rigidity constraint is imposed. Our study leads us to conclude that generically weak first order behavior occurs in this family of models in agreement with a recent nonperturbative renormalization group description of frustrated magnets.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, minor changes, published versio

Phase Transitions with Discrete Symmetry Breaking in Antiferromagnetic Heisenberg Models on a Triangular Lattice

We study phase transition behavior of the Heisenberg model on a distorted triangular lattice with competing interactions. The ground-state phase diagram indicates that underlying symmetry can be changed by tuning parameters. We focus on two cases in which a phase transition with discrete symmetry breaking occurs. The first is that the order parameter space is SO(3)$\times C_3$. In this case, a first-order phase transition, with threefold symmetry breaking, occurs. The second has the order parameter space SO(3)$\times Z_2$. In this case, a second-order phase transition occurs with twofold symmetry breaking. To investigate finite-temperature properties of these phase transitions from a microscopic viewpoint, we introduce a method to make the connection between continuous frustrated spin systems and the Potts model with invisible states.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Monte Carlo Study of the Anisotropic Heisenberg Antiferromagnet on the Triangular Lattice

We report a Monte Carlo study of the classical antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with easy axis anisotropy on the triangular lattice. Both the free energy cost for long wavelength spin waves as well as for the formation of free vortices are obtained from the spin stiffness and vorticity modulus respectively. Evidence for two distinct Kosterlitz-Thouless types of defect-mediated phase transitions at finite temperatures is presented.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure