Surface criticality of the antiferromagnetic Potts model

Abstract

We study the three-state antiferromagnetic Potts model on the simple-cubic lattice, paying attention to the surface critical behaviors. When the nearest neighboring interactions of the surface is tuned, we obtain a phase diagram similar to the XY model, owing to the emergent O(2) symmetry of the bulk critical point. For the ordinary transition, we get $y_{h1}=0.780(3)$, $\eta_\parallel=1.44(1)$, and $\eta_\perp=0.736(6)$; for the special transition, we get $y_s=0.59(1)$, $y_{h1}=1.693(2)$, $\eta_\parallel=-0.391(4)$, and $\eta_\perp=-0.179(5)$; in the extraordinary-log phase, the surface correlation function $C_\parallel(r)$ decays logarithmically, with decaying exponent $q=0.60(2)$, however, the correlation $C_\perp(r)$ still decays algebraically, with critical exponent $\eta_\perp=-0.442(5)$. If the ferromagnetic next nearest neighboring surface interactions are added, we find two transition points, the first one is a special point between the ordinary phase and the extraordinary-log phase, the second one is a transition between the extraordinary-log phase and the $Z_6$ symmetry-breaking phase, with critical exponent $y_{\rm s}=0.41(2)$. The scaling behaviors of the second transition is very interesting, the surface spin correlation function $C_\parallel(r)$ and the surface squared staggered magnetization at this point decays logarithmically, with exponent $q=0.37(1)$; however, the surface structure factor with the smallest wave vector and the correlation function $C_\perp(r)$ satisfy power-law decaying, with critical exponents $\eta_\parallel=-0.69(1)$ and $\eta_\perp=-0.37(1)$, respectively.