Generalized XY Model Research Articles

Phase diagram of generalized XY model using the tensor renormalization group

We use the higher-order tensor renormalization group method to study the two-dimensional generalized XY model that admits integer and half-integer vortices. This model is the deformation of the classical XY model and has a rich phase structure consisting of nematic, ferromagnetic, and disordered phases and three transition lines belonging to the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless and Ising class. We explore the model for a wide range of temperatures, T, and the deformation parameter, Δ, and compute specific heat along with integer and half-integer magnetic susceptibility, finding both Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless-like and Ising-like transitions and the region where they meet. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Ordering kinetics and steady states of XY-model with ferromagnetic and nematic interaction

Previous studies on the generalized XY model have concentrated on the equilibrium phase diagram and the equilibrium nature of distinct phases under varying parameter conditions. We direct our attention towards examining the system’s evolution towards equilibrium states across different parameter values, specifically by varying the relative strengths of ferromagnetic and nematic interactions. We study the kinetics of the system, using the temporal annihilation of defects at varying temperatures and its impact on the coarsening behavior of the system. For both pure polar and pure nematic systems, we observe temperature-dependent decay of the exponent, leading to a decelerated growth of domains within the system. At parameter values where both ferromagnetic and nematic interactions are simultaneously present, we show a phase diagram highlighting three low-temperature phases—polar, nematic, and coexistence—along- side a high-temperature disordered phase. Our study provides valuable insights into the complex interplay of interactions, offering a comprehensive understanding of the system’s behavior during its evolution towards equilibrium.

Binder Parameter in a Generalized Two-dimensional XY Model

We performed Monte Carlo simulation for a two-dimensional generalized XY model and calculated the magnetic and nematic Binder parameters. The phase diagram is re-examined based on these Binder parameters, demonstrating their power in studying generalized XY models. The Binder parameter has distinctive behaviors, resulting in different types of phase transition. More importantly, the magnetic Binder parameter gives more insights into the tricritical region where the Kosterlitz-Thouless, Ising, and 1/2 Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition lines meet. It shows signatures for the intermediate region starting from the tricritical point, where the transition line is neither the same physics as the Ising transition below nor the KT transition far above the tricritical point.

Monte Carlo study of Potts versus Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions in a 2D generalized XY model

The generalized XY model has seen renewed interest recently. This model contains both the spin-spin exchange interaction and q-fold nematic interaction. Due to competition between these two kinds of interaction, the model exhibits a rich phase diagram with various phases and unusual phase transitions. Here, we perform an extensive Monte Carlo simulation for this model, focusing on the case of q=3, which corresponds to a three-fold nematic interaction. We use the correlation length to locate the phase transition lines, including the Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) line, the 1/3 KT line, and the Potts line, which meet at the tricritical point. Further, the magnetic correlation length gives more insights into the tricritical region. Finally, it signifies an intermediate region starting from the tricritical point, where the transition line is neither of the same physics as the Pott transition below nor the KT transition far above the tricritical point.

Ensemble inequivalence in a generalized XY model

In this paper, we propose a new generalized XY model with nearest-neighbor interaction which cannot be studied analytically. By adopting both the canonical Monte Carlo simulations and the microcanonical Monte Carlo simulations, the first-order phase transitions in both canonical ensemble and microcanonical ensemble are observed numerically, and the accurate phase-transition temperatures of the model with different parameters are given. From the distinct phase diagrams in two different ensembles, we conclude that the model we propose here exists as an ensemble equivalence.

Numerical Studies of Vortices and Helicity Modulus in the Two-Dimensional Generalized XY Model

Two-dimensional generalized XY spin model on a triangular lattice is studied by means of Monte-Carlo simulations. The critical temperatures of Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition are obtained by the method of helicity modulus. It is found that the results are consistent with those obtained by other methods. The vortex density and the vortex-antivortex pair formation energy are also obtained. The result shows that the critical temperature decreases with the increase of the generalization parameter q. While the vortex-antivortex pair formation energy increases with the increase of q when q>1.

Unsupervised learning of topological phase transitions using the Calinski-Harabaz index

Machine learning methods have been recently applied to learning phases of matter and transitions between them. Of particular interest is the topological phase transition, such as in the XY model, which can be difficult for unsupervised learning such as the principal component analysis. Recently, authors of [Nature Physics \textbf{15},790 (2019)] employed the diffusion-map method for identifying topological order and were able to determine the BKT phase transition of the XY model, specifically via the intersection of the average cluster distance $\bar{D}$ and the within cluster dispersion $\bar\sigma$ (when the different clusters vary from separation to mixing together). However, sometimes it is not easy to find the intersection if $\bar{D}$ or $\bar{\sigma}$ does not change too much due to topological constraint. In this paper, we propose to use the Calinski-Harabaz ($ch$) index, defined roughly as the ratio $\bar D/\bar \sigma$, to determine the critical points, at which the $ch$ index reaches a maximum or minimum value, or jump sharply. We examine the $ch$ index in several statistical models, including ones that contain a BKT phase transition. For the Ising model, the peaks of the quantity $ch$ or its components are consistent with the position of the specific heat maximum. For the XY model both on the square lattices and honeycomb lattices, our results of the $ch$ index show the convergence of the peaks over a range of the parameters $\varepsilon/\varepsilon_0$ in the Gaussian kernel. We also examine the generalized XY model with $q=2$ and $q=8$ and at the value away from the pure XY limit. Our method is thus useful to both topological and non-topological phase transitions and can achieve accuracy as good as supervised learning methods previously used in these models, and may be used for searching phases from experimental data.

Quantum steering and quantum coherence in XY model with Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction

We study the quantum steering and quantum coherence in the generalized XY model with Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction. We find that both the two measurements (steerable weight and robustness of coherence, which are applied to qualify quantum steering and quantum coherence, respectively) can be applied to describe the quantum phase transition in this model. As the strength of Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction increases, the phase transition characterized from the derivative of robustness of coherence becomes less significant. This is dramatically different from steerable weight. As the strength of Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction increases, the identification of quantum phase transition from steerable weight becomes more accurate. In addition, numerical investigations show that a sufficiently large number of random measurements in each assemblage is important in the calculation of steerable weight and the identification of quantum phase transition.

Locally quasi-stationary states in noninteracting spin chains

Locally quasi-stationary states (LQSS) were introduced as inhomogeneous generalisations of stationary states in integrable systems. Roughly speaking, LQSSs look like stationary states, but only locally. Despite their key role in hydrodynamic descriptions, an unambiguous definition of LQSSs was not given. By solving the dynamics in inhomogeneous noninteracting spin chains, we identify the set of LQSSs as a subspace that is invariant under time evolution, and we explicitly construct the latter in a generalised XY model. As a by-product, we exhibit an exact generalised hydrodynamic theory (including ``quantum corrections'').

Topological phase diagram of the disordered 2XY model in presence of generalized Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction

The topological index of a system determines its edge physics. However, in situations such as strong disorder where due to level repulsion the spectral gap closes, the topological indices are not well-defined. In this paper, we show that the localization length of zero modes determined by the transfer matrix method reveals much more information than the topological index. The localization length can provide not only information about the topological index of the Hamiltonian itself, but it can also provide information about the topological indices of the ‘relative’ Hamiltonians. As a case study, we study a generalized XY model (2XY model) further augmented by a generalized Dziyaloshinskii–Moriya-like (DM) interaction parameterized by that after fermionization breaks the time-reversal invariance. The parent Hamiltonian at which belongs to the BDI class is indexed by an integer winding number while the daughter Hamiltonian which belongs to class D is specified by a Z2 index . We show that the localization length, in addition to determining Z2, can count the number of Majorana zero modes leftover at the boundary of the daughter Hamiltonian—which are not protected by the winding number anymore. Therefore the localization length outperforms the standard topological indices in two respects: (i) it is much faster and more accurate to calculate and (ii) it can count the winding number of the parent Hamiltonian by looking into the edges of the daughter Hamiltonian.

Phase Diagram of a Generalized XY Model with Geometrical Frustration

In the present study we investigate the effects of geometrical frustration on the XY model with antiferromagnetic (AFM) coupling on a triangular lattice, generalized by the inclusion of a third-order antinematic term (AN3). We demonstrate that at non-zero temperatures such a generalization leads to a phase diagram consisting of three different quasi-long-range ordered (QLRO) phases. Compared to the model with the second-order AN coupling (AN2), it includes besides the AFM and AN3 phases which appear in the limits of relatively strong AFM and AN3 interactions, respectively, an additional complex noncollinear QLRO phase at lower temperatures wedged between the AFM and AN3 phases. This new phase originates from the competition between the AFM and AN3 couplings, which is absent in the model with the AN2 coupling.

Machine learning of phase transitions in the percolation and XY models.

In this paper, we apply machine learning methods to study phase transitions in certain statistical mechanical models on the two-dimensional lattices, whose transitions involve nonlocal or topological properties, including site and bond percolations, the XY model, and the generalized XY model. We find that using just one hidden layer in a fully connected neural network, the percolation transition can be learned and the data collapse by using the average output layer gives correct estimate of the critical exponent ν. We also study the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, which involves binding and unbinding of topological defects, vortices and antivortices, in the classical XY model. The generalized XY model contains richer phases, such as the nematic phase, the paramagnetic and the quasi-long-range ferromagnetic phases, and we also apply machine learning method to it. We obtain a consistent phase diagram from the network trained with only data along the temperature axis at two particular parameter Δ values, where Δ is the relative weight of pure XY coupling. Aside from using the spin configurations (either angles or spin components) as the input information in a convolutional neural network, we devise a feature engineering approach using the histograms of the spin orientations in order to train the network to learn the three phases in the generalized XY model and demonstrate that it indeed works. The trained network by using system size L×L can be used to the phase diagram for other sizes (L^{'}×L^{'}, where L^{'}≠L) without any further training.

Multiple phase transitions in the XY model with nematic-like couplings

Critical behavior of the two-dimensional generalized XY model involving solely nematic-like terms of the second, third and fourth orders is studied by Monte Carlo method. We find that such a system can undergo three successive phase transitions. At higher temperatures there is a phase transition of the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless type to the q=4 nematic-like phase, followed by two more transitions of the Ising type to the q=2 nematic-like and ferromagnetic phases, respectively. The q nematic-like phases are characterized by spin alignments with angles 2kπ/q, where k≤q is an integer. The ferromagnetic phase appears at low temperatures even without the presence of magnetic interactions owing to a synergic effect of the nematic-like terms.

Thermodynamic quantities and phase transition of a generalized XY model on triangular lattice

The thermodynamic quantities and transition problem of a generalized XY model on triangular lattice are studied by using Monte Carlo (MC) method. We find this transition is a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) type, the same as the XY model, by the result of critical exponents and helicity modulus. The critical temperature is obtained by four different methods. Meanwhile, some thermodynamic quantities are also discussed in detail.

$${\Gamma}$$ Γ -Convergence Analysis of a Generalized XY Model: Fractional Vortices and String Defects

We propose and analyze a generalized two dimensional $XY$ model, whose interaction potential has $n$ weighted wells, describing corresponding symmetries of the system. As the lattice spacing vanishes, we derive by $\Gamma$-convergence the discrete-to-continuum limit of this model. In the energy regime we deal with, the asymptotic ground states exhibit fractional vortices, connected by string defects. The $\Gamma$-limit takes into account both contributions, through a renormalized energy, depending on the configuration of fractional vortices, and a surface energy, proportional to the length of the strings. Our model describes in a simple way several topological singularities arising in Physics and Materials Science. Among them, disclinations and string defects in liquid crystals, fractional vortices and domain walls in micromagnetics, partial dislocations and stacking faults in crystal plasticity.

Model parameter learning using Kullback–Leibler divergence

In this paper, we address the following problem: For a given set of spin configurations whose probability distribution is of the Boltzmann type, how do we determine the model coupling parameters? We demonstrate that directly minimizing the Kullback–Leibler divergence is an efficient method. We test this method against the Ising and XY models on the one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) lattices, and provide two estimators to quantify the model quality. We apply this method to two types of problems. First, we apply it to the real-space renormalization group (RG). We find that the obtained RG flow is sufficiently good for determining the phase boundary (within 1% of the exact result) and the critical point, but not accurate enough for critical exponents. The proposed method provides a simple way to numerically estimate amplitudes of the interactions typically truncated in the real-space RG procedure. Second, we apply this method to the dynamical system composed of self-propelled particles, where we extract the parameter of a statistical model (a generalized XY model) from a dynamical system described by the Viscek model. We are able to obtain reasonable coupling values corresponding to different noise strengths of the Viscek model. Our method is thus able to provide quantitative analysis of dynamical systems composed of self-propelled particles.

Deconfinement transitions in a generalised XY model

We find the complete phase diagram of a generalised XY model that includes half-vortices. The model possesses superfluid, pair-superfluid and disordered phases, separated by Kosterlitz–Thouless (KT) transitions for both the half-vortices and ordinary vortices, as well as an Ising-type transition. There also occurs an unusual deconfining phase transition, where the disordered to superfluid transition is of Ising rather than KT type. We show by analytical arguments and extensive numerical simulations that there is a point in the phase diagram where the KT transition line meets the deconfining Ising phase transition. We find that the latter extends into the disordered phase not as a phase transition, but rather solely as a deconfinement transition. It is best understood in the dual height model, where on one side of the transition height steps are bound into pairs while on the other they are unbound. We also extend the phase diagram of the dual model, finding both loop model and antiferromagnetic Ising transitions.

Competing nematic interactions in a generalized XY model in two and three dimensions.

We study a generalization of the XY model with an additional nematic-like term through extensive numerical simulations and finite-size techniques, both in two and three dimensions. While the original model favors local alignment, the extra term induces angles of 2π/q between neighboring spins. We focus here on the q=8 case (while presenting new results for other values of q as well) whose phase diagram is much richer than the well-known q=2 case. In particular, the model presents not only continuous, standard transitions between Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phases as in q=2, but also infinite-order transitions involving intermediate, competition-driven phases absent for q=2 and 3. Besides presenting multiple transitions, our results show that having vortices decoupling at a transition is not a sufficient condition for it to be of BKT type.

Frustrated ground states of a generalizedXYmodel and their mapping to nonmagnetic structural analogs

Ground state phases of a generalized XY model with magnetic and generalized nematic couplings on a non-bipartite triangular lattice are investigated in the exchange interactions parameter space. We demonstrate that the model displays a number of ordered and quasi-ordered phases as a result of geometrical frustration and/or competition between the magnetic and generalized nematic interactions. The nature and the extent of the respective phases depend on the parameter $q$, characterizing the higher-order harmonics term in the Hamiltonian. Motivated by the recent discovery of the experimental realization of the model with $q=2$ in the seemingly unrelated field of the systems chemistry [A.B. Cairns et al., Nature Chemistry 8, 442 (2016)], the model for $q>2$ is discussed in the context of the prediction of structural phases of a class of bimetalic cyanides based on a mapping between the two systems.

Kosterlitz-Thouless and Potts transitions in a generalizedXYmodel

We present extensive numerical simulations of a generalized XY model with nematic-like terms recently proposed by Poderoso et al. [ Phys. Rev. Lett. 106 067202 (2011)]. Using finite size scaling and focusing on the q=3 case, we locate the transitions between the paramagnetic (P), the nematic-like (N), and the ferromagnetic (F) phases. The results are compared with the recently derived lower bounds for the P-N and P-F transitions. While the P-N transition is found to be very close to the lower bound, the P-F transition occurs significantly above the bound. Finally, the transition between the nematic-like and the ferromagnetic phases is found to belong to the three-states Potts universality class.