Random-field mechanism in random-bond multicritical systems

Abstract

It is argued on general grounds that bond randomness drastically alters multicritical phase diagrams via a random-field mechanism. For example, tricritical points and critical end points are entirely eliminated (d≤2) or depressed in temperature (d>2). These predictions are confirmed by a renormalization-group calculation. Another consequence of this phenomenon is that, under bond randomness, the phase transitions of q-state Potts models are second order for all q at dimensionality d≤2.