Abstract
An aerogel of volume fraction is modeled on a 3D lattice using diffusion-limited cluster-cluster aggregation in cubic boxes of sizes up to 20 × 20 × 20. A set of -state Potts variables are disposed on the nonoccupied sites and their order-disorder phase transition is studied by means of a Monte Carlo technique for and . It is found that the transition changes from first to second order above a nonzero threshold value of . A comparison is made with the case of randomly occupied sites. The possible application to recent experimental results is discussed.
- Received 10 June 1994
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.74.422
©1995 American Physical Society