Uniformly frustrated XY model without vortex-pattern ordering

Abstract

The uniformly frustrated XY model with f=1/3 on a dice lattice is shown to possess a so well developed accidental degeneracy of its ground states that the difference between the free energies of fluctuations does not lead to the stabilization of a particular vortex pattern down to zero temperature. Nonetheless, at low temperatures the system is characterized by a finite helicity modulus whose vanishing (at a finite temperature) is related with the dissociation of half-vortex pairs.