Abstract
The phase diagram of the three-state chiral clock model, which is known to exhibit commensurate and incommensurate ordered modulated structures, is investigated in the mean-field approximation. First a numerical analysis of the mean-field equations is presented. It is based in the main on the observation that these equations define a non-linear mapping in a four dimensional space. This method of analyzing the mean-field theory proves particularly useful in the determination of the pinning transition of the incommensurate structures. Next the phase diagram is investigated analytically by means of a Landau expansion modified such as to include domain walls. It is found that in the vicinity of the order-disorder transition most features of the phase diagram can be explained quantitatively by this expansion. Finally we present a systematic lowtemperature expansion of the mean-field theory, showing that the low-temperature phase diagram obtained in the mean-field approximation is different from that of the full model.
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Dedicated to B. Mühlschlegel on the occasion of his 60th birthday
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Siegert, M., Everts, H.U. Mean-field theory of the three-state chiral clock model. Z. Physik B - Condensed Matter 60, 265–281 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01304447
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01304447