Blume-Emery-Griffiths-Potts model in two dimensions: Phase diagram and critical properties from a position-space renormalization group

Abstract

The spin-1 Ising model on the square lattice with nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic exchange interactions [both bilinear ($J$) and biquadratic ($K$) and crystal-field interaction ($\Delta$) is studied via a renormalization-group transformation in position space. The phase diagram in $J$, $K$, $\Delta$ space is found to have one surface of critical phase transitions and two surfaces of first-order phase transitions. These surfaces are variously bounded by an ordinary tricritical line, an isolated critical line, and a line of critical end points. These three lines joint at a special tricritical point corresponding to the transition of the three-state Potts model. The over-all phase diagram is qualitatively similar to that obtained with the mean-field approximation, except in the vicinity of the Potts transition where a four-phase coexistence line in mean-field theory shrinks into a special tricritical point in renormalization-group theory. Symmetry considerations guide the construction of our truncated renormalization-group transformation. The global connectivity and local exponents of the thirteen separate fixed points underlying this quite complicated structure are determined. Local analysis with respect to magnetic field ($H$) and another odd interaction ($L$) is performed. A one-adjusted-parameter version of our transformation yields remarkably quantitative results, predicting the Potts transition temperature, for example, within 0.3% of the exact value.