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Article
First Order Transitions and Multicritical Points in Weak Itinerant Ferromagnets
Physical Review Letters
  • Dietrich Belitz
  • Theodore R. Kirkpatrick
  • Thomas Vojta, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Abstract

It is shown that the phase transition in low-Tc clean itinerant ferromagnets is generically of first order, due to correlation effects that lead to a nonanalytic term in the free energy. A tricritical point separates the line of first order transitions from Heisenberg critical behavior at higher temperatures. Sufficiently strong quenched disorder suppresses the first order transition via the appearance of a critical end point. A semiquantitative discussion is given in terms of recent experiments on MnSi, and predictions for other experiments are made.

Department(s)
Physics
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 1999 American Physical Society (APS), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
6-1-1999
Publication Date
01 Jun 1999
Disciplines
Citation Information
Dietrich Belitz, Theodore R. Kirkpatrick and Thomas Vojta. "First Order Transitions and Multicritical Points in Weak Itinerant Ferromagnets" Physical Review Letters Vol. 82 Iss. 23 (1999) p. 4707 - 4710 ISSN: 0031-9007
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/thomas-vojta/84/