Surface critical exponents at a discontinuous bulk transition

Abstract

Systems with a bulk first-order transition can display diverging correlation lengths close to a surface. This surface induced disordering yields a special type of surface criticality. Using extensive numerical simulations we study surface quantities in the two-dimensional Potts model with a large number of states $q$ which undergoes a discontinuous bulk transition. The surface critical exponents are thereby found to depend on the value of $q$, which is in contrast to prior claims that these exponents should be universal and independent of $q$. It follows that surface induced disordering at first-order transitions is characterized by exponents that depend on the details of the model.

16 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review B