Ground state properties of dilute classical fcc Heisenberg antiferromagnets with nearest-neighbor interactions

Abstract

We investigate the ground state properties of a classical fcc Heisenberg antiferromagnet with nearest‐neighbor interactions. It is assumed that a fraction x of the sites are occupied at random. The ground state energy and rms magnetization are obtained as a function of x for 0.1⩽x⩽1. Numerical calculations are carried out on finite arrays of 10²−10³ spins. Equilibrium configurations are obtained by successively rotating each spin into the direction of its local field. Unusual features of the ground states of the fully occupied lattice (x = 1) are pointed out and a comparison is made with comparable results for the analogous fcc Ising antiferromagnet.