XY model with competing higher-order interactions.

We study effects of competing pairwise higher-order interactions (HOI) with alternating signs and exponentially decreasing intensity on critical behavior of the XY model. It is found that critical properties of such a generalized model can be very different from the standard XY model and can strongly depend on whether the number of HOI terms is odd or even. Inclusion of any odd number of HOI terms results in two consecutive phase transitions to distinct ferromagnetic quasi-long-range order phases.

Magnetic quasi-long-range ordering in nematic systems due to competition between higher-order couplings.

Critical properties of the two-dimensional XY model involving solely nematic-like terms of the second and third orders are investigated by spin-wave analysis and Monte Carlo simulation. It is found that, even though neither of the nematic-like terms alone can induce magnetic ordering, their coexistence and competition leads to an extended phase of the magnetic quasi-long-range-order phase, wedged between the two nematic-like phases induced by the respective couplings. Thus, except for the multicritical point, at which all the phases meet, for any finite value of the coupling parameters ratio there are two phase transition: one from the paramagnetic phase to one of the two nematic-like phases followed by another one at lower temperatures to the magnetic phase.

XY model with higher-order exchange.

An XY model, generalized by inclusion of up to an infinite number of higher-order pairwise interactions with an exponentially decreasing strength, is studied by spin-wave theory and Monte Carlo simulations. At low temperatures the model displays a quasi-long-range-order phase characterized by an algebraically decaying correlation function with the exponent η=T/[2πJ(p,α)], nonlinearly dependent on the parameters p and α that control the number of the higher-order terms and the decay rate of their intensity, respectively. At higher temperatures the system shows a crossover from the continuous Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless to the first-order transition for the parameter values corresponding to a highly nonlinear shape of the potential well.