Lack of self-averaging of the specific heat in the three-dimensional random-field Ising model

Abstract

We apply the recently developed critical minimum-energy subspace scheme for the investigation of the random-field Ising model. We point out that this method is well suited for the study of this model. The density of states is obtained via the Wang-Landau and broad histogram methods in a unified implementation by employing the N-fold version of the Wang-Landau scheme. The random fields are obtained from a bimodal distribution (hi = +/-2), and the scaling of the specific heat maxima is studied on cubic lattices with sizes ranging from L=4 to L=32. Observing the finite-size scaling behavior of the maxima of the specific heats we examine the question of saturation of the specific heat. The lack of self-averaging of this quantity is fully illustrated, and it is shown that this property may be related to the question mentioned above.