Cluster variation - Pade` approximants method for the simple cubic Ising model

The cluster variation - Pade` approximant method is a recently proposed tool, based on the extrapolation of low/high temperature results obtained with the cluster variation method, for the determination of critical parameters in Ising-like models. Here the method is applied to the three-dimensional simple cubic Ising model, and new results, obtained with an 18-site basic cluster, are reported. Other techniques for extracting non-classical critical exponents are also applied and their results compared with those by the cluster variation - Pade` approximant method.Comment: 8 RevTeX pages, 3 PostScript figure

Magnetic ordering of weakly coupled frustrated quantum spin chains

The ordering temperature of a quasi-one-dimensional system, consisting of weakly interacting quantum spin-1/2 chains with antiferromagnetic spin-frustrating couplings (or zig-zag ladder) is calculated. The results show that a quantum critical point between two phases of the one-dimensional subsystem plays a crucial role. If the one-dimensional subsystem is in the antiferromagnetic-like phase in the ground state, similar to the phase of a spin chain without frustration, weak couplings yield magnetic ordering of the Neel type. For intra-chain spin-frustrating interactions larger than the critical one (at which the quantum phase transition takes place), the quasi-one-dimensional spin system manifests a spiral magnetic incommensurate ordering. The obtained results of our quantum theory are compared with the quasi-classical approximations. The calculated features of magnetic ordering are expected to be generic for weakly coupled quantum spin chains with gapless excitations and spin-frustrating nearest and next-nearest neighbor interactions.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Observation of thermally activated glassiness and memory dip in a-NbSi insulating thin films

We present electrical conductance measurements on amorphous NbSi insulating thin films. These films display out-of equilibrium electronic features that are markedly different from what has been reported so far in disordered insulators. Like in the most studied systems (indium oxide and granular Al films), a slow relaxation of the conductance is observed after a quench to liquid helium temperature which gives rise to the growth of a memory dip in MOSFET devices. But unlike in these systems, this memory dip and the related conductance relaxations are still visible up to room temperature, with clear signatures of a temperature dependent dynamics

On the low-temperature phase of the three-state antiferromagnetic Potts model on the simple cubic lattice

The three-state antiferromagnetic Potts model on the simple cubic lattice is investigated using the cluster variation method in the cube and the star-cube approximations. The broken-sublattice-symmetry phase is found to be stable in the whole low-temperature region, contrary to previous results obtained using a modified cluster variation method. The tiny free energy difference between the broken-sublattice-symmetry and the permutationally-symmetric-sublattices phases is calculated in the two approximations and turns out to be smaller in the (more accurate) star-cube approximation than in the cube one.Comment: 4 pages REVTeX + 2 PostScript figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. E as a Rapid Communicatio

Destruction of superconductivity in disordered materials : a dimensional crossover

The disorder-induced Superconductor-to-Insulator Transition in amorphous Nb$_{x}$Si$_{1-x}$ two-dimensional thin films is studied for different niobium compositions $x$ through a variation of the sample thickness $d$. We show that the critical thickness $d_c$, separating a superconducting regime from an insulating one, increases strongly with diminishing $x$, thus attaining values of over 100 {\AA}. The corresponding phase diagram in the $(d, x)$ plane is inferred and related to the three-dimensional situation. The two-dimensional Superconductor-to-Insulator Transition well connects with the three-dimensional Superconductor-to-Metal Transition

Universal properties of highly frustrated quantum magnets in strong magnetic fields

The purpose of the present paper is two-fold. On the one hand, we review some recent studies on the low-temperature strong-field thermodynamic properties of frustrated quantum spin antiferromagnets which admit the so-called localized-magnon eigenstates. One the other hand, we provide some complementary new results. We focus on the linear independence of the localized-magnon states, the estimation of their degeneracy with the help of auxiliary classical lattice-gas models and the analysis of the contribution of these states to thermodynamics.Comment: Paper based on the invited talk given by J. Richter at the International Conference "Statistical Physics 2006. Condensed Matter: Theory and Applications" dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Ilya Lifshitz (Kharkiv, 11-15 September, 2006