Effect of long- and short-range interactions on the thermodynamics of dipolar spin ice

Abstract

The thermodynamic properties of dipolar spin ice on square, honeycomb and shakti lattices in the long-range and short-range dipole interaction models are studied. Exact solutions for the density of states, temperature dependencies of heat capacity, and entropy are obtained for these lattices with a finite number of point dipoles by means of complete enumeration. The magnetic susceptibility and average size of the largest low-energy cluster are calculated for square spin ice by means of Wang–Landau and Metropolis methods. We show that the long-range interaction leads to a blurring of the energy spectrum for all considered lattices. The inclusion of the long-range interaction leads to a significant change in the thermodynamic behaviour. An additional peak of heat capacity appears in the case of the honeycomb lattice. The critical temperature shifts in the direction of low or high temperatures; the direction depends on the lattice geometry. The critical temperature of the phase transition of square spin ice in the long-range model with frustrated ground states is obtained with the Wang–Landau and Metropolis methods independently.