Phase transitions and ordering structures of a model of a chiral helimagnet in three dimensions

Abstract

Phase transitions in a classical Heisenberg spin model of a chiral helimagnet with the Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya (DM) interaction in three dimensions are numerically studied. By using the event-chain Monte Carlo algorithm recently developed for particle and continuous spin systems, we perform equilibrium Monte Carlo simulations for large systems up to about $10^6$ spins. Without magnetic fields, the system undergoes a continuous phase transition with critical exponents of the three-dimensional \textit{XY} model, and a uniaxial periodic helical structure emerges in the low temperature region. In the presence of a magnetic field perpendicular to the axis of the helical structure, it is found that there exists a critical point on the temperature and magnetic-field phase diagram and that above the critical point the system exhibits a phase transition with strong divergence of the specific heat and the uniform magnetic susceptibility.