• DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.56.2572
• Corpus ID: 18496343

PHASE TRANSITIONS IN THE TWO-DIMENSIONAL XY MODEL WITH RANDOM PHASES : A MONTE CARLO STUDY

@article{Maucourt1997PHASETI,
  title={PHASE TRANSITIONS IN THE TWO-DIMENSIONAL XY MODEL WITH RANDOM PHASES : A MONTE CARLO STUDY},
  author={J. Maucourt and Daniel R. Grempel},
  journal={Physical Review B},
  year={1997},
  volume={56},
  pages={2572-2579}
}

• J. Maucourt, D. Grempel
• Published 11 March 1997
• Physics
• Physical Review B

We study the two-dimensional XY model with quenched random phases by Monte Carlo simulation and finite-size scaling analysis. We determine the phase diagram of the model and study its critical behavior as a function of disorder and temperature. If the strength of the randomness is less than a critical value, $\sigma_{c}$, the system has a Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) phase transition from the paramagnetic phase to a state with quasi-long-range order. Our data suggest that the latter exists down to T=0 in contradiction with theories that predict the appearance of a low-temperature reentrant phase. At the critical disorder $T_{KT}\rightarrow 0$ and for $\sigma > \sigma_{c}$ there is no quasi-ordered phase. At zero temperature there is a phase transition between two different glassy states at $\sigma_{c}$. The functional dependence of the correlation length on $\sigma$ suggests that this transition corresponds to the disorder-driven unbinding of vortex pairs.