Hysteresis loop signatures of phase transitions in a mean-field model of disordered Ising magnet

Abstract

The multiplicity of long-lived states in frustrated disordered magnets makes the task to experimentally deter-mine which of them has the lowest free energy (and thus what thermodynamic phase the sample is in) seem rather hopeless. Nevertheless here we show in the framework of Landau-type phenomenological model that signatures of the mean-field equilibrium phase transitions in such highly nonequilibrium systems may be found in the evolution of the hysteresis loop form. Thus the sequence of transitions from spin-glass to mixed phase and to ferromagnetic one results in the changes from inclined hysteresis loop to that with the developing vertical sides and to one with the perfectly vertical sides. Such relation between loop form and the location of global minimum may hold beyond the mean-field approximation and can be useful in the real experiments and Monte-Carlo simulations of the problems involving rugged potential landscape.