Phase diagram of the one-dimensional three-state Potts model with an additional mean-field interaction

Abstract

We derive the phase diagram of the one-dimensional three-state Potts model with an additional mean-field interaction in the canonical ensemble. The free energy is obtained by mapping the model onto the spin-$1$ Blume-Emery-Griffiths model and solving it by using an Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation combined with the transfer matrix method. A complex structure with lines of first-order transitions, two triple points and a critical point appears at finite temperature. The phase diagram is two-dimensional, since there are two adjustable parameters, the nearest-neighbour coupling $K$ and the temperature $T$. We show that the phase diagram does not present second-order phase transition lines, due to the fact that the order parameter is not a symmetry-breaking one. Quite remarkably, we are able to determine analytically one of the first-order phase-transition lines. We also prove that, when the nearest-neighbour coupling $K$ is large and negative, the first-order transition temperature becomes asymptotically independent of $K$.