Deconfinement and unconventional phase transitions in frustrated systems

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• Dr Stephen Powell, UoN
• Thursday 08 May 2014, 13:45-15:00
• Theory Library.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Kevin Ralley.

Certain frustrated systems, such as spin ice and dimer models, exhibit a Coulomb phase at low temperatures, with power-law correlations and fractionalized monopole excitations. Applied perturbations (external field, pressure, etc.) can drive a transition to a phase where the monopoles become confined. I will present a general analysis of behaviour in the vicinity of such critical points, incorporating the effects of a nonzero density of thermal monopoles. Scaling theory allows one to arrive at universal results for the crossover phenomena, which can be tested in numerics or experiment. I will also present Monte Carlo results that confirm these predictions in spin ice and in a related transition in the cubic dimer model.

This talk is part of the Theoretical Physics Seminars series.

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• Bham Talks
• Theoretical Physics Seminars
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