Phase Transitions on Random Lattices: How Random is Topological Disorder?

Hatem Barghathi and Thomas Vojta
Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 120602 – Published 19 September 2014

Abstract

We study the effects of topological (connectivity) disorder on phase transitions. We identify a broad class of random lattices whose disorder fluctuations decay much faster with increasing length scale than those of generic random systems, yielding a wandering exponent of ω=(d1)/(2d) in d dimensions. The stability of clean critical points is thus governed by the criterion (d+1)ν>2 rather than the usual Harris criterion dν>2, making topological disorder less relevant than generic randomness. The Imry-Ma criterion is also modified, allowing first-order transitions to survive in all dimensions d>1. These results explain a host of puzzling violations of the original criteria for equilibrium and nonequilibrium phase transitions on random lattices. We discuss applications, and we illustrate our theory by computer simulations of random Voronoi and other lattices.

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  • Received 25 February 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.120602

© 2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Hatem Barghathi and Thomas Vojta

  • Department of Physics, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri 65409, USA

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Issue

Vol. 113, Iss. 12 — 19 September 2014

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