Related papers: Surface-induced disorder and aperiodic perturbatio…
Systems with a bulk first-order transition can display diverging correlation lengths close to a surface. This surface induced disordering yields a special type of surface criticality. Using extensive numerical simulations we study surface…
We present Monte Carlo simulations of surface induced disordering in a model of a binary alloy on a bcc lattice which undergoes a first order bulk transition from the ordered DO3 phase to the disordered A2 phase. The data are analyzed in…
We study the influence of an aperiodic extended surface perturbation on the surface critical behaviour of the two-dimensional Ising model in the extreme anisotropic limit. The perturbation decays as a power of the distance from the free…
We consider the semi-infinite (q)-state Potts model. We prove, for large (q), the existence of a first order surface phase transition between the ordered phase and the the so-called "new low temperature phase" predicted in \cite{Li}, in…
We present recent Monte Carlo results on surfaces of bcc-structured binary alloys which undergo an order-disorder phase transformation in the bulk. In particular, we discuss surface order and surface induced disorder at the bulk transition…
We investigate the morphology of diblock copolymers in the vicinity of flat, chemically patterned surfaces. Using a Ginzburg-Landau free energy, spatial variations of the order parameter are given in terms of a general two-dimensional…
Phase transitions induced by varying the strength of disorder in the large-q state Potts model in 3d are studied by analytical and numerical methods. By switching on the disorder the transition stays of first order, but different…
Two-dimensional layered aperiodic Ising systems are studied in the extreme anisotropic limit where they correspond to quantum Ising chains in a transverse field. The modulation of the couplings follows an aperiodic sequence generated…
A layered system of charges with logarithmic interaction parallel to the layers and random dipoles in each layer is studied via a variational method and an energy rationale. These methods reproduce the known phase diagram for a single layer…
We study the surface behavior of the two-dimensional columnar dimerized quantum antiferromagnetic XXZ model with easy-plane anisotropy, with particular emphasis on the surface critical behaviors of the (2+1)-dimensional quantum critical…
We consider the interplay of disorder and interactions upon the gapless surface states of 3D topological superconductors. The combination of topology and superconducting order inverts the action of time-reversal symmetry, so that extrinsic…
The surface and bulk properties of the two-dimensional Q > 4 state Potts model in the vicinity of the first order bulk transition point have been studied by exact calculations and by density matrix renormalization group techniques. For the…
Scaling relations are used to study cross-overs, due to anisotropic spin interactions or single ion anisotropy, and due to disorder, in the thermodynamics and correlation functions near quantum-critical transitions. The principal results…
The $q$-state Potts model is an archetypical model for various types of phase transitions. We consider it on the square grid and focus on the regime where it undergoes a discontinuous transition, that is $q>4$. At the transition point…
The critical behaviour of semi-infinite $d$-dimensional systems with short-range interactions and an O(n) invariant Hamiltonian is investigated at an $m$-axial Lifshitz point with an isotropic wave-vector instability in an $m$-dimensional…
A theory is constructed for dense ionic solutions near charged planar walls that is valid for strong inter-ionic correlations. This theory predicts a fluctuation-induced, first-order transition and spontaneous charge density ordering at the…
We study the surface critical behavior of semi-infinite systems belonging to the bulk universality class of the Ising model. Special attention is paid to the local behavior of experimentally relevant quantities such as the order parameter…
We study the effects of smooth inhomogeneities at first-order transitions. We show that a temperature gradient at a thermally-driven first-order transition gives rise to nontrivial universal scaling behaviors with respect to the length…
The phase transition in the q-state Potts model with homogeneous ferromagnetic couplings is strongly first order for large q, while is rounded in the presence of quenched disorder. Here we study this phenomenon on different two-dimensional…
A salient feature of cyclically driven first-order phase transformations in crystals is their scale-free avalanche dynamics. This behavior has been linked to the presence of a classical critical point but the mechanism leading to…