Fast flat-histogram method for generalized spin models

Abstract

We present a Monte Carlo method that efficiently computes the density of states for spin models having any number of interaction per spin. By combining a random walk in the energy space with collective updates controlled by the microcanonical temperature, our method yields dynamic exponents close to their ideal random-walk values, reduced equilibrium times, and very low statistical error in the density of states. The method can host any density of states estimation scheme, including the Wang-Landau algorithm and the transition matrix method. Our approach proves remarkably powerful in the numerical study of models governed by long-range interactions, where it is shown to reduce the algorithm complexity to that of a short-range model with the same number of spins. We apply the method to the -state Potts chains with power-law decaying interactions in their first-order regime; we find that conventional local-update algorithms are outperformed already for sizes above a few hundred spins. By considering chains containing up to spins, which we simulated in fairly reasonable time, we obtain estimates of transition temperatures correct to five-figure accuracy. Finally, we propose several efficient schemes aimed at estimating the microcanonical temperature.