# Untitled Document

Persistence in the Zero-Temperature Dynamics of the

Diluted Ising Ferromagnet in Two Dimensions

S. Jain,

School of Mathematics and Computing,

University of Derby,

Kedleston Road,

Derby DE22 1GB,

U.K.

E-mail: S.Jain@derby.ac.uk

Classification Numbers:

05.20-y, 05.50+q, 05.70.Ln, 64.60.Cn, 75.10.Hk, 75.40.Mg

Published in Physical Review E60, R2445 (1999)

Cond-mat/9906272

ABSTRACT

The non-equilibrium dynamics of the strongly diluted random-bond Ising model in two-dimensions $`(2d)`$ is investigated numerically. The persistence probability, $`P(t)`$, of spins which do not flip by time $`t`$ is found to decay to a non-zero, dilution-dependent, value $`P(\mathrm{})`$. We find that $`p(t)=P(t)P(\mathrm{})`$ decays exponentially to zero at large times. Furthermore, the fraction of spins which never flip is a monotonically increasing function over the range of bond-dilution considered. Our findings, which are consistent with a recent result of Newman and Stein, suggest that persistence in diluted and pure systems falls into different classes. Furthermore, its behaviour would also appear to depend crucially on the strength of the dilution present.

In the non-equilibrium dynamics of spin systems at zero-temperature we are interested in the fraction of spins, $`P(t)`$, that persist in the same state up to some later time $`t`$. For homogeneous ferromagnetic Ising models in $`d`$-dimensions, $`P(t)`$, has been found to decay algebraically \[1-4\]

$$P(t)t^{\theta (d)},$$
$`(1)`$   
for $`d<4`$, where $`\theta (d)`$ is the new non-trivial persistence exponent.

The presence of a non-vanishing $`P(t)`$ as $`t\mathrm{}`$ has been reported in computer simulations of both the Ising model in higher dimensions ($`d>4`$)  and the $`q`$state Potts model in $`2d`$ for $`q>4`$ ; this feature is sometimes referred to as ‘blocking’. Obviously, if $`P(\mathrm{})>0`$, we can reformulate the problem by restricting our attention only to those spins that eventually flip. Hence, we can consider the behaviour of

$$p(t)=P(t)P(\mathrm{}).$$
$`(2)`$   
Although the numerical simulations of the $`q`$state Potts model mentioned above  seem to indicate that $`p(t)`$ also decays algebraically, the evidence is by no means conclusive.

By considering the dynamics of the local order parameter the persistence problem can be generalised to non-zero temperatures \[6-9\].

It is only recently  that attention has turned to the persistence problem in systems containing disorder. Numerical simulations of the zero-temperature dynamics of the weakly-diluted Ising model in $`2d`$  also reported that $`P(\mathrm{})>0`$. In fact, the study in  is consistent with the presence of three distinct regimes: an initial short time regime where the behaviour is pure-like; an intermediate regime where the persistence probability decays logarithmically; and a final long time regime where the system ‘freezes’ and $`P(t)`$ is effectively constant.

Very recently, Newman and Stein  have argued that the ‘blocking’  of spins in systems with continuous disorder is associated with the fact that ‘every spin flips only finitely many times’ . As a consequence, in some simple $`1d`$ models $`p(t)`$ was found to decay exponentially rather than algebraically for large times, namely

$$p(t)e^{kt},$$
$`(3)`$   
where $`k>0`$. In contrast, persistence in the weakly-diluted Ising model appears to decay logarithmically in the intermediate regime. (Note that  examines the behaviour of $`P(t)`$ and not $`p(t)`$).

Clearly, it is of immense interest to establish whether the presence of ‘blocking’ in a system necessarily implies exponential decay of the persistence probability. Howard  has found evidence for exponential decay in certain non-disordered models with ‘blocking’ ($`2d`$ hexagonal lattices and Bethe lattices with $`z=3`$ are discussed in ).

To clarify and further investigate the situation, in this Rapid Communication we present the results of computer simulations of an Ising model containing strong bond dilution. Here we restrict our attention to zero-temperature.

The Hamiltonian of the model we work with is given by

$$H=\underset{<ij>}{}J_{ij}S_iS_j$$
$`(4)`$   
where $`S_i=\pm 1`$ are Ising spins situated on every site of a square $`L\times L(=N)`$ lattice with periodic boundary conditions and the summation runs over all nearest-neighbour pairs only. The quenched ferromagnetic exchange interactions are selected from a binary distribution given by

$$P(J_{ij})=(1p)\delta (J_{ij})+p\delta (J_{ij}1)$$
$`(5)`$   
where $`p`$ is the concentration of bonds.

We obtained data for $`L=500`$ and $`750`$ at zero temperature for a broad range of bond-concentrations ($`0p0.5`$) on a suite of Silicon Graphics workstations and for $`L=1000`$ on a SGI Origin 2000; as the data for the different lattice sizes studied are practically indistinguishable, here we simply present the results for the largest lattice simulated.

We begin each run with a random starting configuration of the spins and then update the lattice by first calculating the energy change that would result from flipping a spin. The rule we use is: always flip if the energy change is negative, never flip if the energy change is positive and flip at random if the energy change is zero.

The number, $`n(t)`$, of spins which have never flipped until time $`t`$ is then counted. As we are working with strongly diluted lattices, it is necessary to monitor the value of $`n(t)`$ after practically each Monte Carlo step.

The persistence probability is given by 

$$P(t)=[<n(t)>]/N$$
$`(6)`$   
where $`<\mathrm{}>`$ indicates an average over different initial conditions and $`[\mathrm{}]`$ denotes an average over samples i.e. over the bond-dilution. For the simulations considered in this work we averaged over at least 100 different initial conditions and samples for each run.

We now discuss our results. To examine the decay of the persistence probability, in Fig. 1 we plot $`\mathrm{ln}P(t)`$ versus $`\mathrm{ln}t`$ for a wide range of bond concentrations, $`p:0.1p0.5`$, for a lattice of size $`L=1000`$. The decay of $`P(t)`$ appears to be non-algebraic before ‘freezing’ occurs. We see that, effectively, $`P(t)=P(\mathrm{})`$ for $`t>t^{}(p)`$, where the value $`t^{}(p)`$ depends on the strength of the dilution. Furthermore, the non-zero value of $`P(\mathrm{})`$ also depends on $`p`$, with the fraction of non-flipping spins increasing monotonically with the bond concentration. The increase in $`P(\mathrm{})`$ with $`p`$ can be seen more clearly in Fig. 2 where we have plotted some additional data at values of the exchange interaction not shown in Fig. 1. The numerical values of $`P(\mathrm{})`$ for the different bond concentrations simulated are also displayed in Table 1.

Obviously, when $`p=0`$ all spins eventually flip as the energy change in flipping is always zero. For a value of $`p0`$, there will be regions of the lattice containing finite clusters where it will cost energy to flip spins. For example, an isolated bond connecting two up spins is just such a stable cluster. The occurrence of these clusters increases with the bond concentration and hence also does the fraction of spins which never flip. This increases smoothly to $`p=0.5`$, the bond percolation threshold, where it appears to level off. That is, the maximum value of $`P(\mathrm{})0.46`$. Clearly, $`P(\mathrm{})`$ must decrease eventually for higher values of $`p`$ as we know that every spin flips infinitely many times for the pure model, $`p=1`$ .

We now consider the non-algebraic decay of $`P(t)`$ to $`P(\mathrm{})`$. As discussed earlier, it is more convenient to work with $`p(t)`$ from Eqn. (2). In Fig. 3 we replot the data displayed in Fig. 1 as $`\mathrm{ln}p(t)`$ against $`t`$. The straight lines are linear fits to Eqn. (3) after discarding data for short times. It is evident from Fig. 3 that $`p(t)`$ indeed decays exponentially at large times. Hence, we confirm that for the strongly diluted Ising model in $`2d`$ persistence decays exponentially as predicted by Newman and Stein . This is in marked contrast to the behaviour for the pure \[1-3\] and the weakly diluted models .

To conclude, we have presented new data for the zero-temperature dynamics of the strongly diluted random-bond $`2d`$ Ising ferromagnet. This system exhibits ‘blocking’ and we find evidence that $`p(t)`$ decreases exponentially for large times. The fraction of spins which never flip increases monotonically from zero with increasing bond concentration. Our results support the suggestion that the decay of the persistence probability can be non-algebraic for certain classes of models. Indeed, for the diluted $`2d`$ Ising model the behaviour of $`p(t)`$ would appear to depend crucially on the strength of the dilution.

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to C.M. Newman and D.L. Stein for commenting on the draft version of this paper. I would like to acknowledge Matthew Birkin for both technical assistance and maintaining the Silicon Graphics workstations. The CPU time on the SGI Origin 2000 at the University of Manchester was made available by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Great Britain.

FIGURE CAPTIONS

Fig. 1

Log-log plot of $`P(t)`$ versus $`t`$ for the bond-diluted $`2d`$ Ising model for a range of bond concentrations, $`p`$; the size of the lattice is $`1000\times 1000`$.

Fig. 2

A plot of the fraction of spin which NEVER flip ($`P(\mathrm{})`$) against the bond concentraion $`p`$.

Fig. 3

Plot of $`\mathrm{ln}p(t)`$ against $`t`$ for different bond concentrations, $`p`$. The straight lines are linear fits to the data after discarding the initial short time behaviour.

TABLES

Table 1

| $`p`$ | $`P(\mathrm{})`$ |
| --- | --- |
| 0 | 0 |
| 0.025 | 0.0708(1) |
| 0.050 | 0.1340(1) |
| 0.075 | 0.1900(1) |
| 0.100 | 0.2390(1) |
| 0.125 | 0.2813(1) |
| 0.150 | 0.3173(1) |
| 0.175 | 0.3479(2) |
| 0.200 | 0.3732(2) |
| 0.250 | 0.4097(1) |
| 0.300 | 0.4331(2) |
| 0.350 | 0.4453(3) |
| 0.400 | 0.4526(3) |
| 0.450 | 0.4559(2) |
| 0.500 | 0.4576(1) |

The fraction of spins, $`P(\mathrm{})`$, which never flip at various values of the bond concentraion, $`p`$.

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