Strongly Asymmetric Tricriticality of Quenched Random-Field Systems

Abstract

In view of the recently seen dramatic effect of quenched random bonds on tricritical systems, we have conducted a renormalization-group study on the effect of quenched random fields on the tricritical phase diagram of the spin-1 Ising model in $d=3$. We find that random fields convert first-order phase transitions into second-order, in fact more effectively than random bonds. The coexistence region is extremely flat, attesting to an unusually small tricritical exponent $β_u$; moreover, an extreme asymmetry of the phase diagram is very striking. To accomodate this asymmetry, the second-order boundary exhibits reentrance.