2018/05/17 by Milan Žukovič · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2018.07.039
published as Phys. Lett. A 382, 2618 (2018) · 9 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2018/05/17 · arxiv updated 2018/12/24
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.