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arXiv · 0812.3811

A Scaling Hypothesis for Modulated Systems

O. Portmann·A. Goelzer·N. Saratz·O. V. Billoni·D. Pescia·A. Vindigni
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Abstract

We propose a scaling hypothesis for pattern-forming systems in which modulation of the order parameter results from the competition between a short-ranged interaction and a long-ranged interaction decaying with some power $α$ of the inverse distance. With L being a spatial length characterizing the modulated phase, all thermodynamic quantities are predicted to scale like some power of L. The scaling dimensions with respect to L only depend on the dimensionality of the system d and the exponent α. Scaling predictions are in agreement with experiments on ultra-thin ferromagnetic films and computational results. Finally, our scaling hypothesis implies that, for some range of values α>d, Inverse-Symmetry-Breaking transitions may appear systematically in the considered class of frustrated systems.

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O. Portmann, A. Goelzer, N. Saratz, O. V. Billoni, D. Pescia, A. Vindigni. 2010-09-15. A Scaling Hypothesis for Modulated Systems. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.82.184409

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