Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-9-2012
Publication Title
Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
Abstract
The study of frustrated spin systems often requires time-consuming numerical simulations. As the simplest approach, the classical Ising model is often used to investigate the thermodynamic behavior of such systems. Exploiting the small correlation lengths in frustrated Ising systems, we develop a method for obtaining first approximations to the energetic properties of frustrated two-dimensional Ising systems using small networks of less than 30 spins. These small networks allow much faster numerical simulations, and more importantly, analytical evaluations of their properties are numerically tractable. We choose Ising systems on the triangular lattice, the kagome lattice, and the triangular kagome lattice as prototype systems and find small systems that can serve as good approximations to these prototype systems. Through comparisons between the properties of extended models and small systems, we develop a set of criteria for constructing small networks to approximate general infinite two-dimensional frustrated Ising systems. This method of using small networks provides a different and efficient way to obtain a first approximation to the properties of frustrated spin systems.
Volume
85
Issue
3
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevE.85.031107
ISSN
15393755
Rights
©2012 American Physical Society
Recommended Citation
Zhuang, Bilin and Lannert, Courtney, "Small-Network Approximations for Geometrically Frustrated Ising Systems" (2012). Physics: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/phy_facpubs/64
Comments
Archived as published.