Effective interactions due to quantum fluctuations

Quantum lattice systems are rigorously studied at low temperatures. When the Hamiltonian of the system consists of a potential (diagonal) term and a - small - off-diagonal matrix containing typically quantum effects, such as a hopping matrix, we show that the latter creates an effective interaction between the particles. In the case that the potential matrix has infinitely many degenerate ground states, some of them may be stabilized by the effective potential. The low temperature phase diagram is thus a small deformation of the zero temperature phase diagram of the diagonal potential and the effective potential. As illustrations we discuss the asymmetric Hubbard model and the hard-core Bose-Hubbard model.Comment: 35 pages, AMSLate

Entropy-Driven Phase Transition in Low-Temperature Antiferromagnetic Potts Models

We prove the existence of long-range order at sufficiently low temperatures, including zero temperature, for the three-state Potts antiferromagnet on a class of quasi-transitive plane quadrangulations, including the diced lattice. More precisely, we show the existence of (at least) three infinite-volume Gibbs measures, which exhibit spontaneous magnetization in the sense that vertices in one sublattice have a higher probability to be in one state than in either of the other two states. For the special case of the diced lattice, we give a good rigorous lower bound on this probability, based on computer-assisted calculations that are not available for the other lattices

Metastability and Nucleation for the Blume-Capel Model. Different mechanisms of transition

We study metastability and nucleation for the Blume-Capel model: a ferromagnetic nearest neighbour two-dimensional lattice system with spin variables taking values in -1,0,+1. We consider large but finite volume, small fixed magnetic field h and chemical potential "lambda" in the limit of zero temperature; we analyze the first excursion from the metastable -1 configuration to the stable +1 configuration. We compute the asymptotic behaviour of the transition time and describe the typical tube of trajectories during the transition. We show that, unexpectedly, the mechanism of transition changes abruptly when the line h=2*lambda is crossed.Comment: 96 pages, 44 tex-figures, 7 postscript figure

Critical droplets in Metastable States of Probabilistic Cellular Automata

We consider the problem of metastability in a probabilistic cellular automaton (PCA) with a parallel updating rule which is reversible with respect to a Gibbs measure. The dynamical rules contain two parameters $\beta$ and $h$ which resemble, but are not identical to, the inverse temperature and external magnetic field in a ferromagnetic Ising model; in particular, the phase diagram of the system has two stable phases when $\beta$ is large enough and $h$ is zero, and a unique phase when $h$ is nonzero. When the system evolves, at small positive values of $h$, from an initial state with all spins down, the PCA dynamics give rise to a transition from a metastable to a stable phase when a droplet of the favored $+$ phase inside the metastable $-$ phase reaches a critical size. We give heuristic arguments to estimate the critical size in the limit of zero ``temperature'' ($\beta\to\infty$), as well as estimates of the time required for the formation of such a droplet in a finite system. Monte Carlo simulations give results in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.Comment: 5 LaTeX picture

Short-time Gibbsianness for Infinite-dimensional Diffusions with Space-Time Interaction

We consider a class of infinite-dimensional diffusions where the interaction between the components is both spatial and temporal. We start the system from a Gibbs measure with finite-range uniformly bounded interaction. Under suitable conditions on the drift, we prove that there exists $t_0>0$ such that the distribution at time $t\leq t_0$ is a Gibbs measure with absolutely summable interaction. The main tool is a cluster expansion of both the initial interaction and certain time-reversed Girsanov factors coming from the dynamics

Uniqueness of Gibbs Measure for Models With Uncountable Set of Spin Values on a Cayley Tree

We consider models with nearest-neighbor interactions and with the set $[0,1]$ of spin values, on a Cayley tree of order $k\geq 1$. It is known that the "splitting Gibbs measures" of the model can be described by solutions of a nonlinear integral equation. For arbitrary $k\geq 2$ we find a sufficient condition under which the integral equation has unique solution, hence under the condition the corresponding model has unique splitting Gibbs measure.Comment: 13 page

A model with simultaneous first and second order phase transitions

We introduce a two dimensional nonlinear XY model with a second order phase transition driven by spin waves, together with a first order phase transition in the bond variables between two bond ordered phases, one with local ferromagnetic order and another with local antiferromagnetic order. We also prove that at the transition temperature the bond-ordered phases coexist with a disordered phase as predicted by Domany, Schick and Swendsen. This last result generalizes the result of Shlosman and van Enter (cond-mat/0205455). We argue that these phenomena are quite general and should occur for a large class of potentials.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures using pstricks and pst-coi

Monte Carlo with Absorbing Markov Chains: Fast Local Algorithms for Slow Dynamics

A class of Monte Carlo algorithms which incorporate absorbing Markov chains is presented. In a particular limit, the lowest-order of these algorithms reduces to the $n$-fold way algorithm. These algorithms are applied to study the escape from the metastable state in the two-dimensional square-lattice nearest-neighbor Ising ferromagnet in an unfavorable applied field, and the agreement with theoretical predictions is very good. It is demonstrated that the higher-order algorithms can be many orders of magnitude faster than either the traditional Monte Carlo or $n$-fold way algorithms.Comment: ReVTeX, Request 3 figures from [email protected]