First-order to second-order phase transition changeover and latent heats of q-state Potts models in d=2,3 from a simple Migdal-Kadanoff adaptation

Abstract

The changeover from first-order to second-order phase transitions in q-state Potts models is obtained at q(c) = 2 in spatial dimension d = 3 and essentially at q(c) = 4 in d = 2, using a physically intuited simple adaptation of the Migdal-Kadanoff renormalization-group transformation. This simple procedure yields the latent heats at the first-order phase transitions. In both d = 2 and 3, the calculated phase transition temperatures, respectively compared with the exact self-duality and Monte Carlo results, are dramatically improved. The method, when applied to a slab of finite thickness, yields dimensional crossover.