Hidden zero-temperature bicritical point in the two-dimensional anisotropic Heisenberg model: Monte Carlo simulations and proper finite-size scaling

By considering the appropriate finite-size effect, we explain the connection between Monte Carlo simulations of two-dimensional anisotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnet in a field and the early renormalization group calculation for the bicritical point in $2+\epsilon$ dimensions. We found that the long length scale physics of the Monte Carlo simulations is indeed captured by the anisotropic nonlinear $\sigma$ model. Our Monte Carlo data and analysis confirm that the bicritical point in two dimensions is Heisenberg-like and occurs at T=0, therefore the uncertainty in the phase diagram of this model is removed.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure

Multicritical behavior of two-dimensional anisotropic antiferromagnets in a magnetic field

We study the phase diagram and multicritical behavior of anisotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnets on a square lattice in the presence of a magnetic field along the easy axis. We argue that, beside the Ising and XY critical lines, the phase diagram presents a first-order spin-flop line starting from T=0, as in the three-dimensional case. By using field theory we show that the multicritical point where these transition lines meet cannot be O(3) symmetric and occurs at finite temperature. We also predict how the critical temperature of the transition lines varies with the magnetic field and the uniaxial anisotropy in the limit of weak anisotropy.Comment: 21 pages, 8 fig

Role of electrostatics in the texture of islands in free standing ferroelectric liquid crystal films

Curved textures of ferroelectric smectic C* liquid crystals produce space charge when they involve divergence of the spontaneous polarization field. Impurity ions can partially screen this space charge, reducing long range interactions to local ones. Through studies of the textures of islands on very thin free-standing smectic films, we see evidence of this effect, in which materials with a large spontaneous polarization have static structures described by a large effective bend elastic constant. To address this issue, we calculated the electrostatic free energy of a free standing film of ferroelectric liquid crystal, showing how the screened coulomb interaction contributes a term to the effective bend elastic constant, in the static long wavelength limit. We report experiments which support the main features of this model

Monte Carlo simulations of Rb2MnF4{\rm Rb_2MnF_4}, a classical Heisenberg antiferromagnet in two-dimensions with dipolar interaction

We study the phase diagram of a quasi-two dimensional magnetic system ${\rm Rb_2MnF_4}$ with Monte Carlo simulations of a classical Heisenberg spin Hamiltonian which includes the dipolar interactions between ${\rm Mn}^{2+}$ spins. Our simulations reveal an Ising-like antiferromagnetic phase at low magnetic fields and an XY phase at high magnetic fields. The boundary between Ising and XY phases is analyzed with a recently proposed finite size scaling technique and found to be consistent with a bicritical point at T=0. We discuss the computational techniques used to handle the weak dipolar interaction and the difference between our phase diagram and the experimental results.Comment: 13 pages 18 figure