Spurious fixed points in frustrated magnets

Abstract

We analyze the validity of perturbative estimations obtained at fixed dimensions in the study of frustrated magnets. To this end we consider the five-loop beta-functions obtained within the minimal subtraction scheme and exploited without epsilon-expansion both for frustrated magnets and for the well-controlled ferromagnetic systems with a cubic anisotropy. Comparing the two cases it appears that the fixed point supposed to control the second order phase transition of frustrated magnets is very likely an unphysical one. This is supported by the non-Gaussian character of this fixed point at the upper critical dimension d=4. Our work confirms the weak first order nature of the phase transition and constitutes a step towards a unified picture of existing theoretical approaches to frustrated magnets.