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# Phase transition within deformed Ising model

## I Introduction

The Ising model is known to be a corner stone of the microscopic theory of phase transitions a d . Evident simplicity of this model is based on a supposition that every lattice site $`i`$ has a spin taking only two magnitudes $`s_i=\pm 1`$. Although exact solution is not found for the three–dimension Ising model, its using allows one to explain main peculiarities of real phase transitions. Along this line, the qualitative picture becomes clear already within framework of the mean–field approach.

Recent considerations pay much attention to study complex systems which self–similarity derives to generalization of the Gibbs–Boltzmann statistics to Tsallis–type one (see Ref.2  and references therein). Formally, such a generalization is performed by means of replacement of the probability $`p_i`$ by the so called deformed probability $`p_i^q`$ with a positive index $`q1`$. Here, we propose to complete such a procedure by the relevant deformation on the microscopic level. Namely, we deform the Ising Hamiltonian by means of replacing a site spin $`s_i`$ by $`s_i^q`$. Such a deformation is shown to uphold the second order phase transition, whereas the set of critical indices becomes depending on the parameter $`q`$ essentially.

The Letter is organized in the following manner. In Section 2 the $`q`$–deformed Hamiltonian is postulated and simplified within the mean–field approach. Section 3 deals with determination of the fractional average allowing us to obtain the definition of the order parameter. In Section 4 $`q`$–deformed distribution function is found to write a self–consistency equation for the order parameter. Section 5 devotes to the consideration of asymptotic solutions of the self–consistency equation. The last Section 6 contains a brief discussion concerning scaling relations.

## II Main statements

We postulate the q–deformed Hamiltonian in the following form:

$$H=\frac{1}{2}\underset{i,j}{}𝒥_{ij}s_i^qs_j^qh\underset{i}{}s_i^q.$$
(1)
Here, summation runs over $`N`$ lattice sites $`ij`$, $`𝒥_{ij}`$ is effective interaction potential, $`h`$ is external field, $`s_i=\pm 1`$ is a site spin, $`q1`$ is a deformation parameter.

In the simplest way, we use further the usual scheme of the mean–field approximation a d . Within this approach, one follows to replace the multiplier $`s_j^q`$ by an average value $`s^q`$. Moreover, we shall take into account the only interaction of nearest neighbor sites whose number equals $`z`$ and potential is reduced to the constant $`𝒥>0`$. Then, the mean–field effective Hamiltonian is as follows:

$`H_{ef}={\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\epsilon _i;\epsilon _i=h_qs_i^q,h_qh+T_cs^q`$ (2)
where a characteristic temperature $`T_cz𝒥`$ is introduced.

It is easy to foresee the postulated Hamiltonian will be meaningless if the index $`q1`$ is not chosen to satisfy the condition

$$(1)^q=1.$$
(3)
Then, the complex representation $`1\mathrm{e}^{i\pi (2n+1)}`$, $`n=0,\pm 1,\mathrm{}`$ arrives at the set of rational numbers

$$q=\frac{2m+1}{2n+1},mn$$
(4)
with integers $`m,n=0,\pm 1,\mathrm{}`$. Obviously, above reduction of the continuous set $`q[0,1]`$ into the manifold of rational numbers (4) is caused by the discrete symmetry of the Ising model being invariant with respect to the transformations $`\{s_i\}\{s_i\}`$, $`hh`$.

As a result, the site energy in the effective Hamiltonian (2) takes the linear form

$$\epsilon _i=h_qs_i.$$
(5)
## III Calculation of the fractional average

Now, we should express the fractional average $`s^q`$ by means of the order parameter $`\eta s`$. Obviously, such a problem will be quite correct only for self–similar systems where it is reduced to definition of an index $`p(q)`$ in the relation O

$$s^q\eta ^{p(q)}.$$
(6)
If relevant distribution varies very slightly near the origin $`x=0`$ and decays abruptly in the limit $`x\mathrm{}`$ (see Eqs.(11), (13) below), we have the following estimations:

$`x^q{\displaystyle x^qdx}x^{1+q},x{\displaystyle xdx}x^2.`$ (7)
These derive immediately to the principle relation

$$x^qx^{p(q)},p(q)=\frac{1+q}{2}.$$
(8)
Respectively, the effective field in Eq.(5) takes the form

$$h_q=h+T_c\eta ^{\frac{1+q}{2}}$$
(9)
that differs from the usual one with change of the order parameter $`\eta `$ by the power–law function $`\eta ^{\frac{1+q}{2}}`$.

## IV Statistical scheme

Along the line of using $`q`$–deformed quantities, we need to state on the Renyi entropy

$$S_q(1q)^1\mathrm{ln}\underset{\{s_i\}}{}P^q\{s_i\}$$
(10)
which is easy seen to take the Boltzmann form in the limit $`q1`$. Then, the maximum entropy principle taken with accounting the normalization condition $`_{\{s_i\}}P\{s_i\}=1`$ and the definition of the $`q`$–deformed internal energy $`E_q_{\{s_i\}}\epsilon _i(s_i)P^q\{s_i\}`$ derives to the distribution function

$`P\{s_i\}={\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}p_i(s_i),p_i=z_q^1\mathrm{exp}_q\left(\beta 1_q\epsilon _i\right),`$ (11)
$`1_q{\displaystyle \underset{\{s_i\}}{}}p_i^q(s_i)`$ (12)
where $`z_q`$ is the specific partition function related to one site, $`\beta \frac{1}{T}`$ is inverse temperature measured in the energy units; $`q`$–deformed exponential is as follows:

$$\mathrm{exp}_q(x)\{\begin{array}{cc}\left[1+(1q)x\right]^{\frac{1}{1q}}\hfill & \mathrm{at}1+(1q)x>0,\hfill \\ 0\hfill & \mathrm{otherwise}.\hfill \end{array}$$
(13)
Such a form is known to generalize usual exponential related to the limit $`q1`$. It allows one to generate in usual manner the set of $`q`$–deformed hyperbolic functions: $`\mathrm{sinh}_q(x)`$, $`\mathrm{cosh}_q(x)`$, $`\mathrm{tanh}_q(x)`$ and $`\mathrm{coth}_q(x)`$ 2 .

We calculate now the site partition function

$$z_q\underset{s_i=\pm 1}{}\mathrm{exp}_q\left(\beta 1_q\epsilon _i\right)=2\mathrm{cosh}_q(\beta 1_qh_q)$$
(14)
that differs from the usual one with $`q`$–deformation and $`1_q`$ factor appearance. According to Eqs.(11), (12), (14) the latter is determined by the equation

$$1_q=\frac{\left[\mathrm{exp}_q\left(\beta 1_qh_q\right)\right]^q+\left[\mathrm{exp}_q\left(\beta 1_qh_q\right)\right]^q}{\left[\mathrm{exp}_q\left(\beta 1_qh_q\right)+\mathrm{exp}_q\left(\beta 1_qh_q\right)\right]^q}.$$
(15)
With accounting Eq.(14), the order parameter $`\eta s`$ is defined through the self–consistency equation

$$\eta ^{\frac{1+q}{2}}=\mathrm{tanh}_q[\beta 1_qh_q(\eta )]$$
(16)
following from Eqs.(6), (11), (13) and condition (3).

Solutions of the system (15), (16) are shown in Fig.1 for the external field $`h=0`$ and different values of index $`q`$. Main peculiarity of the temperature dependencies $`\eta (T)`$, $`1_q(T)`$ is in decreasing the order parameter $`0\eta 1`$ accompanied by the relevant increasing the parameter $`11_q2`$ at the temperature growth within the domain

$$T_{cq}TT_q,T_{cq}(1q)T_c,T_q2^{1q}T_c$$
(17)
(at $`T<T_{cq}`$ one has $`\eta =1_q=1`$, whereas at $`T>T_q`$ there are $`\eta =0`$, $`1_q=2`$). Thus, decreasing the deformation parameter $`1q0`$ derives to monotonous growth of the order parameter that transforms smoothly falling down dependence $`\eta (T)`$ into step–like one.

Fig.1. Temperature dependencies of both the renormalization parameter (upper panel) and the order parameter (low panel) for different indexes $`q`$ (curves 1 — 7 relate to $`q=0,1/17,1/7,3/11,5/11,5/7,1`$, respectively).

As demonstrated in Fig.2, the effect of the external field is similar to the usual case $`q=1`$: high–temperature dependence $`\eta (h)`$ has the monotonically growing form (dashed curves) that takes, at the low temperatures $`T<T_q`$, the falling down domain located in the vicinity of the point $`h=\eta =0`$ (solid curves). At fixed temperatures, decrease of the deformation parameter is seen to arrive at the more sharply defined non–monotone dependence. At critical field $`h_q=T_c(1T/T_{cq})`$, the dependence $`\eta (h)`$ undergoes a break, whereas in the limit of the small fields $`hh_q`$ one has

$$\eta ^{\frac{1+q}{2}}\frac{h/T_c}{1T/T_q}.$$
(18)
Fig.2. Field dependencies of the order parameter: dashed curves 1 — 6 correspond to the fixed index $`q=5/11`$ and temperatures $`T/T_c=1.5,1.7,1.9,2.2,2.5,2.8`$; solid curves 1 — 6 relate to indexes $`q=0,1/7,3/11,5/11,11/17,1`$ at $`T=0.5T_c`$. Insertion shows details of the coordinate origin neighborhood.

## V Asymptotic regimes

To obtain analytical description, we look over the possible asymptotic solutions of the system (15), (16) in limiting cases of both zero and non–zero external fields.

### Zero field

For small order parameters $`(\eta 1)`$, one has the expansions

$`\mathrm{tanh}_q(x)x{\displaystyle \frac{q(2q)}{3}}x^3,`$ (19)
$`1_q2^{1q}\left[1+2^{2(1q)}(1q)^2\left(\beta h_q\right)^2\right].`$ (20)
Then, the temperature dependence of the order parameter takes the power–law form

$`\eta A^\beta \left(1{\displaystyle \frac{T}{T_q}}\right)^\beta ,`$ (21)
$`A{\displaystyle \frac{3}{(32q)(2q1)}},\beta ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{1+q}},T_q2^{1q}T_c`$ (22)
that corresponds to critical domains $`T_qTT_q`$ in Fig.1. At $`q<1`$, the index $`\beta `$ exceeds the usual magnitude $`\beta =1/2`$.

At the marginal magnitude $`q=0`$, one has

$$\mathrm{tanh}_0(x)=x,1_0=2$$
(23)
and equation (16) arrives at the condition

$$\sqrt{\eta }=\frac{T_q}{T}\sqrt{\eta }.$$
(24)
It remains valid for arbitrary values $`\eta `$ at $`T=T_q`$. So, this case corresponds to the step–like curve 1 in Fig.1.

In the limit $`q1`$, there are the expansions

$$1_q2^{1q},\mathrm{tanh}_q(x)x\left(12q\frac{x^2}{1x^2}\right).$$
(25)
Respectively, the order parameter

$$\eta \left(1+\frac{2q}{1T/T_q}\right)^1$$
(26)
decays very fast within tight window $`1T/T_qq1`$ (see curve 2 in Fig.1).

Finally, we consider the form of the temperature dependence of the free energy $`FTN\mathrm{ln}(z_q)`$ near the critical temperature $`T_q`$. Here, the hyperbolic cosine in Eq.(14) can be expanded over the argument $`\beta 1_qh_q\beta T_q\eta ^{\frac{1+q}{2}}`$ in series comprising of even terms only. In accordance with relevant temperature dependence (21), these terms have orders $`[(T_qT)/T_q]^n`$ with the lowest index $`n=2`$ because the first–order term $`(n=1)`$ is suppressed by self–action effects. Thus, in the limit $`(T_qT)/T_q1`$ we obtain $`FT_q[(T_qT)/T_q]^2`$ and the specific heat $`C\mathrm{d}^2F/\mathrm{d}T^2`$ does not vary with temperature. This results in the magnitude

$$\alpha =0$$
(27)
of the critical index of the dependence $`C[(T_qT)/T_q]^\alpha `$.

### Non–zero field

Here, we start with the approximate equation

$`\eta ^{\frac{1+q}{2}}2^{1q}\beta h_q\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{2^{2(1q)}}{A}}(\beta h_q)^2\right]`$ (28)
following from Eqs.(16), (19) (notations $`h_q`$ and $`A`$ are given with Eqs.(9), (22)). In the limit $`h0`$, differentiation of Eq.(28) with respect to the field $`h`$ yields the following expression for the susceptibility $`\chi \mathrm{d}\eta /\mathrm{d}h`$:

$$T_c\chi =2(1+q)^1\eta ^{\frac{1q}{2}}\left(\frac{TT_q}{T_q}+\frac{3}{A}\eta ^{1+q}\right)^1.$$
(29)
Thus, in disordered state $`(\eta =0,T>T_q)`$ one has the susceptibility $`\chi =0`$. Physically, this means a suppression of critical fluctuations in the disordered phase — quite differently from the usual picture.

In ordered phase $`(\eta 0,T<T_q)`$, inserting Eq.(21) into Eq.(29) we get the power–law dependence

$$T_c\chi =\frac{A^{\frac{1}{2}\frac{1q}{1+q}}}{1+q}\left(\frac{T_qT}{T_q}\right)^\gamma $$
(30)
with the critical index

$$\gamma =1\frac{1}{2}\frac{1q}{1+q}.$$
(31)
With decreasing the deformation parameter $`1q0`$, this index falls down monotonically from the usual value $`\gamma =1`$ to $`\gamma =1/2`$.

In the opposite limit $`h\mathrm{}`$, Eq.(28) related to the critical point $`T=T_q`$ derives to the power–law dependence

$$\eta \left(A\frac{h}{T_c}\right)^{\frac{1}{\delta }}$$
(32)
with the critical index

$$\delta =\frac{3}{2}(1+q).$$
(33)
## VI Discussion

Above mean–field consideration shows the deformation of Ising Hamiltonian by means of replacing a site spin $`s_i`$ by a power function $`s_i^q`$ derives to the phase transition of the second order with unusual set of critical indices (27), (22), (31) and (33). The zeroth magnitude of the first of them is caused apparently by the mean–field approach. It is easy to convince also in zeroing indexes $`\epsilon `$, $`\zeta `$ defined by the field dependence of the specific heat $`Ch^\epsilon `$ and the space dependence of the correlation function $`G(r)r^{(d2+\zeta )}`$ L . Moreover, there are critical indexes $`\mu `$ and $`\nu `$ defining the field–temperature dependencies $`\xi h^\mu `$ and $`\xi (T_qT)^\nu `$ of the correlation length $`\xi `$. Among complete set of these indexes, only two are independent, whereas the rest are known to be determined by the scaling relations. Then, the question of fundamental importance arises how influences the deformation on these relations.

The first of them, Widom relation, takes the usual form L

$$\beta \delta =\beta +\gamma $$
(34)
that follows from comparison of two chains of definitions: $`\eta \chi hh(T_qT)^{\beta +\gamma }`$ and $`h\eta ^\delta (T_qT)^{\beta \delta }`$. Using the relation $`\xi h^\mu `$ in the latter, one has

$$\mu (\beta +\gamma )=\nu .$$
(35)
Combination of Eqs.(34), (35) yields the relation $`\beta \delta \mu =\nu `$ that together with Eqs.(22) and (33) gets $`3\mu =2\nu `$. Finally, using the fluctuation–dissipation theorem derives to the equality L

$$2\nu =\gamma $$
(36)
that defines the rest of indexes:

$`\mu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1q}{1+q}}\right),\nu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1q}{1+q}}\right).`$ (37)
What about the Essam–Fisher equality, it takes the form

$$\alpha +\beta +\gamma =\frac{3}{2}$$
(38)
following from the consequence $`C(T_qT)^2\eta ^{\frac{1+q}{2}}hh(T_qT)^{\frac{3}{2}\alpha }`$ that differs from the usual one by replacing $`\eta `$ by $`\eta ^{\frac{1+q}{2}}`$.

It is worthwhile to note all of equalities (34) — (36), (38) are invariant with respect to the deformation.

In this work, financial support by STCU, project 1976, is gratefully acknowledged.


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# Star – triangle equivalence in soap froths

## 1 Foam equilibrium

In a two dimensional foam at equilibrium, the films are arcs of circles meeting 3 by 3 at vertices. The first property is Laplace law with uniform gas pressure inside each bubble. The second is stability or genericity, viewing foams as random patterns \[Weaire Rivier 1984, Weaire Hutzler 1999\]. Two further conditions characterize equilibrated foams:

* The sum of the edge curvatures $`k_{ij}`$ around any vertex is zero (Laplace).
* At any vertex, the angles between the films are $`\frac{2\pi }{3}`$ (Plateau).

These Plateau-Laplace conditions follow from mechanical equilibrium or energy minimisation under the constraints of constant amount of matter in each bubble. In the incompressibility approximation, the energy of foams is proportional to the total length of the films, or perimeter.

More general situations can be considered where the surface tension has different values $`\gamma _{ij}`$ on different sides. Then the equilibrium P-L conditions become

1. $`\gamma _{ij}k_{ij}=0`$ around any vertex. (L)
2. $`\gamma _{ij}\stackrel{}{t}_{ij}=0`$ at any vertex, (P)

where $`\stackrel{}{t}_{ij}`$ are unit vectors tangent to the films at the considered vertex.

As described so far, the model seems restricted to foams in the dry limit. However, this is not the case. The model is also valid for foams with a small liquid fraction. Indeed, the liquid is confined into concave triangular regions around the vertices —the Plateau borders— and the film circular arcs may be prolongated inside the Plateau borders so as to meet three by three in a way satisfying Plateau’s rule. This vertex decoration lemma \[Bolton Weaire 1991\] or theorem \[Weaire 1999\] follows from hydrostatic equilibrium. The restriction comes only from the edges that are too short to support separated liquid triangles at their ends; this gives rise to borders with more than 3 (curved) sides and the simplified geometry fails.

We call it “vertex” decoration to distinguish it from a bubble decoration theorem which is our subject here. It may be summarised as follows: any three-sided bubble can be considered as a decoration of a virtual vertex which is the unique intersection of the three external edges incident to the triangle, suitably prolonged. Moreover, Plateau’s rule is satisfied at this vertex. In other words, any triangular bubble my be replaced by a star: a vertex with the circular arcs needed to complete the 3 external edges; reciprocally, any vertex may be decorated by substituting to it a triangular bubble, small enough not to enclose any entire edge from the original three star. The equilibrium is preserved by any of these star-triangle transformations.

In more details, this property contains two parts: 1) when prolonged into the triangle, the three external edges meet at a common point, the star point or vertex; 2) the angles of the prolonged edges at the star point satisfy Plateau.

The main corollary following this theorem is continuity at T2 processes. Suppose that the foam evolves slowly enough that assuming equilibrium at each time is a good approximation. Evolution is due to gas diffusion through the weakly permeable films, eventually with quasistatic external constraints. When a side becomes vanishingly short, two vertices meet and, when they coalesce, the configuration may not be a foam equilibrium any more. Therefore a fast evolution occurs, energy dissipates until a new quasi-equilibrium is reached. It is customary to decompose such topological changes into elementary processes: edge switch T1, preserving the number of cells, and cell extinction T2.

When a 3-sided bubble shrinks, the outside edges extend to a (virtual) equilibrated star figure at each time. So, precisely when the triangle degenerates to a point, the star vertex becomes real and the figure is ipso facto in equilibrium. No fast evolution, or discontinuity at the slow scale, is needed. Compare this with the discontinuity generally implied in T1 \[Bolton Weaire 1992\] processes or in T2 ones when the extinguishing bubble has 4 sides or more \[Fradkov et al. 1993\].

## 2 A bubble decoration theorem

We now show that, under the hypothesis of P-L equilibrium, the three external edges —legs, for short— of a three-bubble $`C_1`$ extend to a common point and that they meet in way satisfying Plateau’s rule.

We give two proofs, one using simple geometry, the other based on Moukarzel’s reciprocity.

The first proof uses reflection, valid when the angles all equal $`\frac{2\pi }{3}`$. So constant surface tension is assumed.

### 2.1 Inversion

The symmetry group of equilibrated foams is $`SL(2,)`$, the group of conformal transformations of the compactified plane $`\overline{}=\{\mathrm{}\}`$, conformally equivalent to the sphere $`S^2`$. This is an extension of the 2D Euclidean group by inversions 111Also called homographies, Moebius or linear fractional transformations.. Beside preserving angles (conformality), these transformations map circles to circles; in particular any circle passing through the inversion point $`v^{}`$ is sent to a straight line (circle through infinity). Moreover the equilibrium conditions (P-L) are conserved by these transformations \[Moukarzel 1997, Weaire 1999\].

### 2.2 Local reflection principle

A straight edge is a symmetry axis for the figure formed by any of its end vertices and the two circles incident to that vertex (the edge itself is also symmetric, of course). Indeed, the circles are defined by the vertex $`v`$, the tangent at that point and curvature. The tangents are symmetric by Plateau; equality of curvatures (up to sign) follows from Laplace and the value zero of the curvature of the straight edge. In particular the line defined by the centres of the two circles through $`v`$ is orthogonal to the straight edge. This reflection principle is only valid when the surface tensions have the same value.

### 2.3 Proof 1

A crucial property of equilibrated foams is alignment \[Moukarzel 1997, Weaire 1999\]: the centres of the 3 (arcs of) circles meeting at any vertex $`v`$ are aligned. This is equivalent to the existence of a point $`v^{}`$, conjugate to $`v`$, where the three circles also meet. $`v^{}`$ is symmetric to $`v`$ with respect to the line of the centres. When one of the edges is straight, alignment reduces to orthogonality, as implied by local reflection symmetry.

Let us apply an inversion transformation with respect to the point $`v_{123}^{}`$, conjugate of $`v_{123}`$. In the settings of figure 1, the circles of $`e_{23}`$, $`e_{13}`$ and $`e_{12}`$ are mapped onto lines, $`e_{23}^{}`$, $`e_{13}^{}`$ and $`e_{12}^{}`$ meeting at $`v_{123}^{}`$ with angles of $`\frac{2\pi }{3}`$ (figure 1b).

We can assume that $`v_{123}^{}`$ is at the origin $`0`$. Consider the vertex $`v_{124}^{}`$ on the line $`e_{12}^{}`$. As the angles of $`\frac{2\pi }{3}`$ are preserved, the tangent to $`e_{14}^{}`$ at $`v_{124}^{}`$ must be vertical (parallel to $`e_{23}^{}`$). So the centre $`c_{14}^{}`$ of $`e_{14}^{}`$ is on the same horizontal line as $`v_{124}^{}`$. By the same argument at $`v_{134}^{}`$, we find that $`v_{134}^{}`$, $`v_{124}^{}`$ and $`c_{14}^{}`$ are on the same horizontal line. Therefore $`e_{14}^{}`$ is a half circle centred on the axis $`e_{23}^{}`$ which, thus, becomes a symmetry axis for the triangle. The reflection principle can now be applied to the two edges $`e_{12}^{}`$ and $`e_{13}^{}`$ to extend the symmetry to the figure made of the triangle and the circles supporting its legs. This figure becomes completely symmetric under the group $`D_3`$ (generated by mirrors at $`\pi /3`$).

In particular, the two circles supporting $`e_{24}^{}`$ and $`e_{34}^{}`$ intersect at a point on the axis $`e_{23}^{}`$ —proving convergence— and they meet with angle $`\frac{2\pi }{3}`$ —proving Plateau. Applying the inverse transformation ensures the required properties for the original three-bubble (foam).

As a corollary, equilibrated triangles are rigid modulo homographies. For example, by $`SL(2,)`$, any equilibrated three-sided bubble can be mapped onto the regular equilateral curved triangle with angles $`2\pi /3`$ and straight external legs.

### 2.4 Duality

The 3-bubble decoration property is also true for general foams with edge dependent superficial tensions. Our second proof will be valid in this case.

It is based on the following theorem by Moukarzel \[Moukarzel 1997\]: a cellular pattern bounded by circle arcs meeting at threefold vertices represents an equilibrated foam $``$ if and only if there is an oriented dual figure $`^{}`$. Each bond in the dual is straight and must be orthogonal to its corresponding curved interface in the foam.

Under these conditions, the nodes of the dual may be considered as sources generating the foam by distance (in)equalities. In addition to its location, each source $`P_j`$ gets two parameters: an additive parameter, or altitude, controlling the size of the cell relative to its neighbours, and a multiplicative one controlling the curvatures. The cells are then the territories satisfying $`d_i(x)d_j(x)`$ for all $`ji`$, with an appropriate distance $`d_j()`$ defined in terms of the Euclidean distance to the source $`P_j`$ and its parameters. The precise form of the function $`d_j`$ ensures that the boundaries are circular arcs.

### 2.5 Proof 2

The 3 neighbours $`C_2,C_3,C_4`$ of a 3-bubble correspond to 3 sources $`P_2,P_3,P_4`$ forming a triangle in $`^{}`$. The central bubble $`C_1`$ is represented by a point $`P_1`$ connected to the vertices of the triangle by three bonds (figure 2-a). Removing or inserting the three-bubble in $``$ is the same as removing or inserting the source $`P_1`$ in $`^{}`$ (figure 2-b).

Now the outer edges each satisfy an equality $`d_i(x)=d_j(x)`$ for a pair $`i<j`$ taken in $`\{2,3,4\}`$. When two edges meet at some $`x_0`$, say $`d_2(x_0)=d_3(x_0)`$ and $`d_3(x_0)=d_4(x_0)`$, then the third equality is also satisfied by transitivity. The condition on the angles follows from the fact that the vertices built in such a way are automatically equilibrated (see \[Moukarzel 1997\]).

## 3 Generalisations and discussion

Duality, whence the decoration theorems, apply to a wide class of cellular patterns whose equilibrium is governed solely by surface tension. Regarding pure equilibrium configurations, and in absence of any other field such as gravity, the cells filled with gas or liquid can be treated similarly. So, as far as geometry is concerned, there is no fundamental distinction between vertex (Plateau borders) and bubble decorations. The difference is only quantitative; up to small corrections due to disjoining pressure, the surface tension for the films is twice the value for liquid-gas interfaces (Plateau border boundaries).

A further extension is as follows: any cell cluster surrounded by three bubbles is connected to the rest of the foam by three edges —its ’legs’ as we said previously. The same argument would show that the legs are arcs of circles meeting at a common, equilibrated (virtual) vertex. In other words, star-triangle extends to star–tripod equivalence.

### 3.1 What about multipods ?

Can the same argument be applied to cells —gas or liquid— with more than 3 legs ? Consider, for example, a 4 sided cell. In the reciprocal figure, it is represented by a source point connected to 4 neighbours. Removing this source without changing anything else will replace the 4-cell in the foam by a pattern made of two vertices joined by a curved edge, each of these vertices being connected to two of the former legs, suitably prolonged (figure 3). In the class of generalised model foams, which is the natural context of the theory, the new pattern is perfectly equilibrated. The trouble is that the value of the line tension, inherited by the new edge from the parameters of the dual sources, has nothing to do with any physically plausible value. Looking at figure 3, the angles of the new edge with the legs are far form $`2\pi /3`$, apparently violating Plateau’s law. More precisely, generalised Plateau (P) is still satisfied, but the theoretical value $`\gamma _e`$ required to make the new configuration a true equilibrium does not match the physical one, supposing one would realize the transformation physically. This mismatch renders the substitution of a 4-bubble by an H incompatible with equilibrium. When one of these bubbles shrinks, this mismatch persists down to zero area where it breaks equilibrium, triggers dynamical processes (fast or slow) and the foam needs to adjust its configuration in order to equilibrate the physical tensions.

### 3.2 Coarsening

The star-triangle equivalence is a pure equilibrium property that cannot be extrapolated to either mechanical response or time evolution. To demonstrate this point, let us compare two samples slowly evolving under gas diffusion, neglecting any effect from the Plateau borders. The two foams are identical at a time $`t=0`$ except for a star-triangle transformation. Let us also assume that no other topological changes occur during the life time $`t_0`$ of the triangular bubble. Initially, if a bubble with $`n`$ sides and area $`a`$ has the star participating to its boundary, its replica neighbouring the triangle has $`n+1`$ sides and area $`aa_0`$ (Figure 4). At any later time $`tt_0`$, bubble area obeys Von Neumann’s law \[Von Neumann 1952\]: $`a(t)=a(0)\kappa (6n)t`$ with $`\kappa `$ a constant. So, at the time $`t_0=b/(3\kappa )`$ when the triangle vanishes —and the topology of the two samples converges—, the area of the neighbour is $`a\kappa (6n)t_0`$ in one case, $`aa_0\kappa (6n1)t_0`$ in the other. So there is a metrical difference of $`\kappa t_0a_0=b/3a_0`$ between the two situations: in general, replacing a triangle by a vertex changes the way the foam coarsens.

### 3.3 Conclusion

As presented here, star-tripod equivalence is one of the many properties that can be inferred, in a straightforward way, from Moukarzel’s duality method \[Moukarzel 1997\]. This equivalence is related to the fact that all the triangular bubbles are equivalent under the symmetry group of foams, larger than the standard Euclidean group. As a consequence, the vanishing of a triangle by diffusion is a geometrically continuous process. Conversely, bubbles with $`n4`$ sides have intrinsic degrees of freedom which, in general, imply discontinuity, or breaking of equilibrium, at extinction (T2).

As an application, star-triangle equivalence could be used to reduce the number of coordinates, thereby improving the efficiency of numerical minimisation, for example. As we have seen, this equivalence is only reliable for equilibrium questions. When the foam evolves, slowly or quickly, or when it is subjected to mechanical constraints, this equivalence is broken; triangles cannot be considered as decorations of vertices any more.

The natural extensions to dimension 3 concern cellular patterns whose boundaries are spherical patches. Albeit pleasant, this type of geometry is too restricted for real 3D foams.

## Acknowledgement

We would like to thank N. Rivier for stimulating discussions.


text:
# Gamma-ray bursts: a Centauro’s cry?

## Abstract

Gamma-ray bursts are enigmatic flashes of gamma-rays at cosmological distances, so bright that the implied energetics is astounding: energies of order of about solar rest-energy are liberated in a time scale of the order of seconds in space regions only a few kilometers in size. Central engines capable to produce such enormous explosions, leading to a highly relativistic expending fireballs, remain a mystery. Here we propose a new candidate for the gamma-ray bursts central engine.

Centauros are unusual cosmic-ray events firstly observed in 1972 at the Chacaltaya high mountain laboratory . Detector used in this experiment consisted by upper and lower chambers separated by the carbon target. Usually the upper chamber detects much more particles than the lower chamber, because the electromagnetic component of the shower, initiated by the primary cosmic-ray interaction at some altitude above the detector, is strongly suppressed by the carbon layer. The first Centauro event with the contrary situation came as a big surprise. It had a striking imbalance between electromagnetic and hadron components and can be interpreted as a production of 74 hadrons and only one electromagnetic ($`e/\gamma `$) particle. Therefore, in Centauro events one can not guess the lower part of the detector response from the upper one – hence the name.

In a sense, gamma-ray bursts are also like Centauros – from their observed upper parts it is not easy to guess the inside central engine. Let us see if we can give some depth to this metaphor.

The clue is provided by one of “our most perfect physical theories”  – quantum chromodynamics (QCD). At low energies the QCD effective coupling constant is large and usual perturbation theory methods do not work. But, fortunately, many features of the low-energy dynamics are dictated by symmetries of the QCD Lagrangian and their breaking patterns. This enables us to substitute QCD at these energies by some effective theory, for example, by linear sigma model .

In two flavour case, the Lagrangian of the linear sigma model has the form

$$L=\frac{1}{2}_\mu \sigma ^\mu \sigma +\frac{1}{2}_\mu \stackrel{}{\pi }^\mu \stackrel{}{\pi }\frac{\lambda }{4}\left(\sigma ^2+\stackrel{}{\pi }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}v^2\right)^2+H\sigma ,$$
(1)
Here $`\lambda 20,v90\mathrm{MeV}`$ and $`H(120\mathrm{MeV})^3`$ are free parameters of the model and they can be fixed by using the pion and sigma meson masses and PCAC relation as inputs  (note that  is a pedagogical review article where relevant citations to the original papers can be found). In the absence of the last term, the linear sigma model potential has “Mexican hat” shape. Therefore, in this chiral limit the vacuum state is degenerate and chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken as the sigma field develops a nonzero vacuum expectation value.

At finite temperature the thermal fluctuations modify the potential . In a crude, but intuitively transparent approximation the modified potential takes the form (in the chiral limit. See  for explanations)

$$V=\frac{\lambda }{4}\left(\sigma ^2+\stackrel{}{\pi }^2+\frac{T^2}{4}v^2\right)^2.$$
(2)
The $`\sigma `$-condensate, which minimizes the energy, now becomes

$$<\sigma >=\sqrt{v^2\frac{T^2}{4}}$$

and completely melts away at the critical temperature $`T_c=2v180\mathrm{M}eV`$. Above this phase transition point the chiral symmetry is restored. Note that this critical temperature is not accurate by about 20-30 percents. In reality the temperature dependence of the effective potential is quite complicated - see references cited in . But these subtleties are completely irrelevant for our purposes - we are just preparing a stage for the main idea which will follow.

The last term $`L_{SB}=H\sigma `$ in the Lagrangian (1) explicitly violates the chiral symmetry and originates from the nonzero quark masses. It tilts the “Mexican hat” and removes the vacuum degeneracy. As a result, $`\sigma `$-condensate does not melts completely away. However, near the critical point the residual value of the $`\sigma `$-condensate is quite small and irrelevant .

In the fireball, produced by a primary cosmic-ray particle interaction with air nuclei, the initial temperature can reach $`T_c`$. Then the chiral symmetry is restored and the sigma field condensate melts away (up to small corrections due to finite quark masses) in some small volume. But the fireball expends quickly and the inside temperature suddenly drops to zero. At that the fields do not have enough time to follow this sudden change in the environment and, therefore, immediately after the quench the system finds itself in a highly out of equilibrium situation for the zero temperature Lagrangian – near the top of the “Mexican hat”.

The vacuum expectation values develop while the system begins to roll down towards the valley of the potential. But all the information about the “correct” orientation of the chiral order parameter (along the sigma direction) is lost during the phase transition. Besides, the fireball inside region is temporally shielded from the outside “normal” world by a thin shell of hot hadronic debris of the fireball. Therefore we have every reason to expect that by the time the fields reach the “Mexican hat” brim the chiral order parameter will be misaligned. Afterwards, then the shielding shell disappears, such Disoriented Chiral Condensate (DCC) relaxes to the ordinary vacuum by emitting a coherent burst of low energy pions  (the DCC literature is vast, we cite only some recent reviews).

The formation and decay of the DCC bubble appears to be an attractive explanation of the Centauro puzzle, although not without difficulties . In accelerator based experiments Centauros were searched but not yet found . These efforts will be continued in the majority of future heavy-ion experiments and, hopefully, we will know soon whether the DCC phenomenon really exists.

Now let us return to the gamma-ray bursts  and put our main card on the table: if a macroscopic DCC region might be formed in some violent cosmic event, its subsequent decay will provide a highly efficient source of a pure radiation energy without the baryon loading problem.

Observational evidence suggests that at least long gamma-ray bursts are associated with star-forming regions and thus most probably with the death (collapse) of massive stars . During supernova core collapse, temperatures can be as high as about 40 MeV , but this is still much lower than the critical temperature $`T_c`$ discussed above. How can the desired chiral phase transition then happen?

The value of $`T_c`$, extracted from the simple arguments concerning high-temperature behaviour of the linear $`\sigma `$-model, assumes low density environment, while in supernova core the density is high. Therefore, in contrast to the cosmic-ray and heavy-ion experiments, we need high density QCD, not the high temperature one.

At high density, one also expects the restoration of chiral symmetry. This is especially transparent in the MIT bag-model picture of nucleons as droplets of chiral symmetry restored phase, within which the quark density is nonzero, immersed in a sea of nonperturbative vacuum with no quarks but nonzero chiral condensate. While squeezing a lump of hadronic matter, as the outer pressure increases, the chiral symmetry restored phase occupies more and more fraction of the volume. At last individual bags begin to overlap and finally they unify in a one big bag containing all the quarks. In such so called quark-gluon plasma (QGP) phase, the chiral symmetry is restored up to effects of nonzero quark masses.

The real situation is not as simple, however. The phase structure of high-density QCD turns out to be surprisingly reach and its study is an active research field at present . A main result is that at high-densities one expects formation of diquark condensates and development of colour superconductivity, due to Fermi surface generic instability against attractive interactions.

In the colour superconductive phase, the chiral symmetry can be both restored, as in the so called two flavour colour superconductivity ($`2SC`$) phase, and spontaneously violated, as in the colour-flavour-locked ($`CFL`$) phase. In latter case, however, the chiral symmetry breaking mechanism is different from the ordinary one at low densities. It turns out that in the $`CFL`$ phase some discrete chiral symmetry remains unbroken up to small instanton-induced effects . This residual (approximate) symmetry renders difficult the development of ordinary $`<\overline{q}_Lq_R>`$ chiral condensate and as a result its magnitude is much less than in the ordinary QCD vacuum .

Therefore, it seems plausible that the transient phase transition, triggered by a high-density, can also lead to formation of DCC bubbles. Let us take a closer look at some speculative scenarios how this may happen.

Interesting and still open fascinating possibility is the hypothetic stability of three-flavour quark matter (strange matter) . If the strange matter is indeed the true ground state of hadronic matter, instead of $`{}_{}{}^{56}Fe`$, then strange stars may exist . Neutron star ($`NS`$) will be converted into strange star ($`SS`$), if a strange matter seed is created inside the neutron star, big enough to overcome surface energy cost. In fact, $`NSSS`$ conversion was suggested as a candidate for the gamma-ray bursts central engine  (we cite only some relevant references, others can be traced through them).

A newborn neutron star can increase its central density because of accretion or spin-down. When the density becomes sufficiently high, the deconfinement phase transition happens and two-flavour ($`u`$ and $`d`$) quark matter is formed in the inner core . But the two-flavour quark matter is unstable and converts into three-flavour strange matter via weak interactions very rapidly, with a time scale below $`10^7\mathrm{s}`$ . Once a strange matter seed is formed, it will start to grow and swallow the surrounding neutron matter. Combustion is limited by quark diffusion and might be, in principle, slow , if not the hydrodynamical instabilities  which, most probably, will turn the conversion of neutron matter into detonation. The whole star will be digested in a time period maybe as short as $`10^3\mathrm{s}`$ .

The $`NSSS`$ conversion is accompanied by a release of huge amount of internal energy, comparable to the star’s binding energy. For example, according to estimates , a neutron star with a mass $`M_{NS}=1.409M_{}`$ and a radius $`R_{NS}=11.0\mathrm{km}`$, which has a gravitational binding energy of about $`4.5\times 10^{53}\mathrm{erg}`$, after the conversion produces the strange star with $`M_{SS}=1.254M_{}`$ and $`R_{SS}=10.5\mathrm{km}`$. At that the expected amount of internal energy released is $`(1.94.2)\times 10^{53}\mathrm{erg}`$. As these estimates show, the liberated internal energy can constitute a significant fraction of the gravitational binding energy. Therefore a nascent strange matter will inflate somewhat before it reassembles itself into the strange star. Hence the appearance of vacuum bubbles inside strange matter seems inevitable. But which vacuum? The primordial chiral condensate disappears during the deconfinement phase transition and the consequent neutron matter burning into strange matter. The new vacuum inside the emergent bubbles is shielded for some time from the normal vacuum by the strange matter. Therefore, it seems natural to expect that the QCD vacuum will be disoriented inside these bubbles, that is DCC will be formed. Afterwards, when the DCC bubbles will come into contact with the ordinary vacuum, they will decay by emitting coherent pions.

Let us estimate how much energy can be stored in these DCC bubbles. Suppose DCC domain is formed inside the bubble with the misalignment angle $`\theta `$. That is inside this DCC region one has

$$<\sigma >_{DCC}=f_\pi \mathrm{cos}\theta ,<\stackrel{}{\pi }>_{DCC}=f_\pi \mathrm{sin}\theta \stackrel{}{n},$$

where $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ is a unit vector in isospin space and $`f_\pi 93\mathrm{MeV}`$ is the pion decay constant. While in the normal vacuum

$$<\sigma >=f_\pi ,<\stackrel{}{\pi }>=0.$$

Energy density in the DCC region is higher than in the normal vacuum because of the symmetry breaking term $`V_{SB}=H\sigma `$. The difference equals (note that $`H=f_\pi m_\pi ^2`$)

$$\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ=H<\sigma >_{DCC}+H<\sigma >=Hf_\pi \left(1\mathrm{cos}\theta \right)=2f_\pi ^2m_\pi ^2\mathrm{sin}^2\frac{\theta }{2}.$$

As an estimator for the total volume of the produced DCC, we take the volume of the spherical shell with inner radius $`R_{SS}`$ and outer radius $`R_{NS}`$. Besides, $`\mathrm{sin}^2\frac{\theta }{2}`$ can be replaced by its mean value $`0.5`$, because the misalignment angle $`\theta `$ changes randomly from domain to domain in the bubbles. Then the total energy content of the DCC bubbles equals

$$E_{DCC}=\frac{4\pi }{3}f_\pi ^2m_\pi ^2\left(R_{NS}^3R_{SS}^3\right)\frac{R_{NS}^3R_{SS}^3}{1\mathrm{km}^3}1.5\times 10^{50}\mathrm{erg}.$$
(3)
For $`R_{NS}=11.0\mathrm{km}`$ and $`R_{SS}=10.5\mathrm{km}`$ this estimation results in $`E_{DCC}2.6\times 10^{52}\mathrm{erg}`$ – just right amount of energy to power a gamma-ray burst!

One can imagine another, even more speculative, scenario which could lead to formation of macroscopic DCC regions. The density in a supernova core can be raised to extreme values during the catastrophic gravitational collapse. It was argued  that even the electroweak symmetry has a chance to be restored in such collapse before the corresponding region is engulfed by a emergent black hole horizon. The subsequent baryon burning due to the baryon number violating processes, unsuppressed in the symmetric phase, was suggested as one more candidate for the gamma-ray bursts central engine .

The chiral symmetry will be restored much before the electroweak symmetry. However, to form the DCC regions one needs gravity suddenly to cease its deadly grasp of these chirally symmetric areas. Otherwise they will find their way into the central singularity with final fate obscure at present. Clearly, the latter is the only possibility offered by the classical theory of gravity.

However, a challenging possibility, that General Relativity is just a low energy effective theory , can not be excluded. Therefore, the gravitational collapse may have completely different outcome than it is expected in Einstein gravity. The following analogy shows this picturesquely . A stretched rubber sheet with a heavy ball on it models general relativity. The membrane is an analog of space-time, the ball corresponds to some gravitating object and the distortion of the rubber sheet surface represents the gravitational field. By declaring the laws of elasticity to be universally true, no matter how extreme the stretching, we expect that when the weight of the ball increases, so does the depression making small objects, which fall into this distortion, more and more inaccessible for us. In reality, however, the membrane ruptures if the ball becomes too heavy and the objects fall through.

In the condensed matter analogs of gravity, the vacuum state also does not remain stable in the presence of the horizon . Besides, perturbations of the quantum vacuum, for example, due to QCD or electroweak phase transitions, can alter the cosmological constant, which in the effective gravity is not a constant but the evolving physical parameter . Therefore, one can not exclude that the gravitational collapse will be accompanied by much reacher phenomenology, like formation of DCC, or even more exotic false vacuum bubbles, than it is anticipated at present.

Although the effective gravity idea  is very attractive, the above mentioned possibility of DCC formation during a gravitational collapse is much more speculative than the scenario associated with the $`NSSS`$ transition. Therefore, let us summarize the latter:

* $`NSSS`$ transition happens probably very quickly due to detonation. In almost all volume, occupied by the initial $`NS`$, the strange matter is formed. But the strange matter has a higher density than the neutron matter. Therefore the produced strange matter can not be completely continuous, it will have voids (vacuum bubbles) in its body.
* The voids will be formed also because the energy liberated during the $`NSSS`$ transition is very high: one expects the newborn strange matter to inflate somewhat before its lumps reunify and form the Strange Star.
* What we are interested in is the content of these voids. In usual QCD vacuum one has a nonzero chiral condensate $`<\overline{q}_Rq_L>`$ – in the linear sigma model language the corresponding quantity is a nonzero vacuum expectation value of the sigma field.
* But during deconfinement phase transition this chiral condensate disappears. Besides in various forms of quark matter this condensate is either absent ($`2SC`$), or is much smaller ($`CFL`$) compared to its value in the normal QCD vacuum at small density and temperature. So one can expect that just after the void bubble is formed inside the strange matter, the fields inside the bubble, both pions and sigma, do not have any vacuum expectation values, or these values are small.
* This situation is not stable inside the bubble, where we have a small ($``$zero) density and a small temperature environment, so that the fields dynamics is approximately governed by the zero temperature and density linear sigma model Lagrangian. The potential of this Lagrangian has a ”Mexican hat” shape and the initial (small) values of the fields are located near its top. So the fields begin to roll down.
* When the fields reach the ”Mexican hat” brim they can find themselves in a wrong place (from the point of view of the normal QCD vacuum). So the so called disoriented chiral condensate (DCC) may be formed.
* When the DCC bubble comes into contact to the normal QCD vacuum, it will decay by emitting pions. At that, if the DCC was oriented in the $`\pi ^0`$ direction (in isospace), it will decay by emitting only neutral pions. If the initial orientation was perpendicular to the $`\pi ^0`$ direction, the neutral pions will not appear at all, but one will have equal numbers of $`\pi ^{}`$ and $`\pi ^+`$.
* Strong electric and magnetic fields can prefer the DCC oriented in the $`\pi ^0`$ direction due to chiral anomaly .
* A huge amount of produced $`\pi ^0`$-s will create a wonderful relativistic fireball because of the decay $`\pi ^02\gamma `$ (or such a fireball will be formed also due to annihilation of $`\pi ^{}`$ and $`\pi ^+`$ pairs, if DCC not in all bubbles is oriented in the $`\pi ^0`$ direction.

In fact the $`NSSS`$ transition is just one example which may lead to the formation of macroscopic amount of DCC bubbles. The main idea of the paper is more general: if in some energetic cosmic events a macroscopic amount of DCC bubbles can be formed, then we will have an effective GRB central engine at hand.

Physics is an experimental science. Therefore, the idea that the cosmic-ray Centauros and gamma-ray bursts both have a common QCD origin, however attractive, must confront scrutiny of the future heavy-ion and cosmic-ray experiments, as well as astrophysical observations. Remarkably, more than 135 theoretical models of the gamma-ray bursts were instantaneously destructed when the observational data from the Beppo-SAX satellite became available . We hope that the idea presented in this article will be more fortunate.


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# Comment on “Nonextensive hamiltonian systems follow Boltzmann’s principle not Tsallis statistics-phase transition, second law of thermodynamics” by Gross

## Abstract

Recently, Gross claims that Boltzmann entropy $`S=k\mathrm{ln}W`$ is valid for any system at equilibrium, so that Tsallis entropy is useless in this case. I comment on some arguments forwarded to reach this conclusion and argue that the additive energy formalism of nonextensive statistics is not appropriate for the fundamental study of the theory for nonadditive systems.

PACS : 02.50.-r, 05.20.-y, 05.30.-d,05.70.-a

In his recent papers, Gross wrote “Boltzmann entropy is well defined, …independently whether it is extensive or not… the eventual nonextensivity of Hamiltonian systems does not demand any exotic entropy at equilibrium”, “there is no alternative to the microcanonical Boltzmann statistics and to our geometrical foundation of equilibrium statistics”, “Therefore, for closed Hamiltonian many-body systems at statistical equilibrium, extensive or not, the thermo-statistical behavior is entirely controlled by Boltzmann’s principle…” and “nonextensive Hamiltonian systems do not demand a new entropy formalism like that by Tsallis”.

Among others, Gross has cited his results of (nonextensive) microcanonical systems of small size to support the universality of Boltzmann’s principle $`S=\mathrm{ln}W(E)`$ where $`W(E)`$ is the phase space volume corresponding to internal energy $`E`$ (we suppose Boltzmann constant $`k=1`$). This is certainly a very interesting work and important affirmation, especially on this moment where the origine and the validity of Tsallis entropy are still an open question to be discussed from different angles

One of the important arguments forwarded by Gross to reject Tsallis entropy $`S_q=\frac{W^{1q}1}{1q}`$ from the study of nonextensive microcanonical systems at equilibrium is the results obtained by Abe and Toral et al to define thermodynamic equilibrium for nonextensive systems within, it should be noted, the third version of Tsallis statistics using escort probability. In what follows, I will argue that, as a matter of fact, these results do not lead to the conclusion against Tsallis entropy for equilibrium nonextensive systems. Let us see this in detail.

It has been shown that, for two subsystems $`A`$ and $`B`$ of a composite system $`A+B`$, a nonadditive entropy

$$S_q(A+B)=S_q(A)+S_q(B)+\lambda _SS_q(A)S_q(B)$$
(1)
and an additive energy $`E(A+B)=E(A)+E(B)`$ may be a pair of sufficient conditions for the existence of thermal equilibrium in $`A+B`$, i.e. $`\beta (A)=\beta (B)`$ for the inverse temperature

$$\beta =\frac{1}{1+(1q)S_q}\frac{S_q}{E}$$
(2)
originally defined within the third version of Tsallis statistics. Note that this additive energy is, from the usual point of view, consistent with the $`independent`$ joint probability $`p(A+B)=p(A)p(B)`$ (or $`W(A+B)=W(A)W(B)`$ for microcanonical ensemble) for two noninteracting (or weakly interacting, as often specified) subsystems. This joint probability is essential for Tsallis statistical theory to be $`exactly`$ applied to $`N`$-body systems and, in addition, to get the explicit entropy nonadditivity Eq.(1).

Toral et al  have shown that the temperature defined in Eq.(2) is identical to that defined in Boltzmann thermo-statistics, i.e. $`\beta =\frac{1}{1q}\frac{\mathrm{ln}[1+(1q)S_q]}{E}=\frac{\mathrm{ln}W}{E}=\frac{S}{E}`$ for microcanonical ensemble. So it seems that Tsallis entropy is unnecessary for this case of nonextensive microcanonical systems at equilibrium, as claimed by Gross.

In view of the situation where the additive energy formalism of Tsallis statistics is more and more accepted in the nonextensive statistics, I think that it would be useful to indicate that additive energy of noninteracting systems is perhaps a good approximation for many systems but not appropriate for discussing fundamental subjects for nonextensive systems implying in general interacting subsystems. So that the conclusion of Gross concerning Tsallis theory is only suitable for “nonextensive systems” with additive energy.

Indeed, if the subsystems are independent, one should simply return to additive statistics with, e.g. Boltzmann or Rényi entropy. So it is not surprising to see Tsallis statistics reduced sometimes to $`q=1`$ due to additive energy. Toral’s interesting result can be even extended (for any version of Tsallis statistics), as shown by Abe, to canonical ensemble with $`S_q=\frac{1_ip_i^q}{1q}`$ satisfying Eq.(1), where $`p_i`$ is the probability that the system is at the state labelled by $`i`$ : $`\beta =\frac{1}{1q}\frac{\mathrm{ln}[1+(1q)S_q]}{E}=\frac{1}{1q}\frac{\mathrm{ln}_ip_i^q}{E}=\frac{S^R}{E}`$ where $`S^R=\frac{\mathrm{ln}_ip_i^q}{1q}`$ is Rényi’s entropy which is $`additive`$ and identical to Boltzmann entropy for microcanonical ensemble in the case of complete probability distribution $`_{i=1}^wp_i=1`$ and $`_{i=1}^wp_i^q=w^{1q}`$ where $`w`$ is the total number of states of the system.

Another example of this self-reduction of Tsallis nonadditive statistics to additive statistics due to additive energy is the study of nonadditive ideal gas which turns out to be identical to the Boltzmann ideal gas. A general analysis has been given in the reference  where it was shown that, through a series of theoretical anomalies, the third version of Tsallis statistics might be self-consistent only when $`q=1`$. In addition, additive energy destroys Eq.(1) for canonical ensemble.

In conclusion, the discussions of fundamental topics about Tsallis statistics with additive energy are in general not appropriate for a nonextensive theory. They cannot be used as arguments against the validity of Tsallis statistics for equilibrium systems. In my opinion, all the colossal works carried out with additive energy are very interesting from practical viewpoint, but not good basis for the study of fundamental problems of nonextensive statistics. It would be helpful for us to return to nonadditive energy, a more general case for nonextensive systems, within Tsallis statistics and review all the results obtained with additive energy, especially the derivation of Tsallis entropy from first principles. I would like to indicate here that the temperature, pressure and the first law of thermodynamics could be well defined with Tsallis entropy by using the nonadditive energy prescribed by thermodynamic equilibrium.

I would like to thank Prof. D.H.E Gross for valuable discussions and for bringing my attention to some recent papers on the topic. I thank Profs. Toral and S. Abe and L. Velazquez for interesting comments and sending me references about the topic.


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# Oskar Klein, the sixth dimension and the strength of a magnetic pole

## I Introduction

It is well known that the world lines of charged particles in the presence of gravitational and electromagnetic fields can be viewed as geodesics in the 5D space-time first proposed by T. Kaluza Kaluza1 (1). Kaluza’s treatment was later improved by Klein in 1926 Klein1 (2), in a quantum theoretical approach, giving rise to the so-called Kaluza-Klein theory Klein2 (3). This formalism also makes possible to propose, based on plausible grounds, a simple formula that gives the value of the characteristic length of the fifth dimension in terms of fundamental constants of nature. The original Kaluza-Klein theories have been, since the 1920’s, the subject of further analysis that include generalizations to a larger number of dimensions Cremmer (4), cosmological implications Salam (5) and magnetic monopoles mono1 (6), most of them treated a-la Dirac Dirac2 (7).

This last subject deserves more attention. Recently JMP1 (8), the authors have observed that a simple 6D generalization of Kaluza’s 5D metric leads naturally to the geodesics of particles possessing (hypothetical) fundamental magnetic charges. Further, this 6D space-time reproduces Maxwell’s equations in the presence of magnetic monopoles and allows the establishment of a wave equation for the vector potential Nos2 (9). In view of these facts, we have reanalyzed Klein’s formalism in order to establish a link between the eigenvalue of the sixth dimensional momentum operator and the discrete nature of the hypothetical point charges. We also examine the characteristic length of the sixth dimension by setting the magnetic charge equal to the value proposed by Dirac.

## II Kaluza’s classic theory in 6 dimensions

We start this section observing that the geodesic equation

$$\frac{d^2x^\alpha }{dt^2}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\beta \lambda }^\alpha \frac{dx^\beta }{dt}\frac{dx^\lambda }{dt}=0$$
(1)
contains the equation of motion of a magnetic charged particle in the presence of a *static* electromagnetic field given that:

$$x^\alpha =\left[\begin{array}{c}x^1\\ x^2\\ x^3\\ ct\\ 0\\ \frac{1}{c\xi }\frac{g}{m}t\end{array}\right]$$
(2)
$$\dot{x}^\alpha =\frac{dx^\alpha }{dt}$$
(3)
$$g_{\mu \nu }=\left[\begin{array}{cccccc}1& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 1& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 1& \xi \phi & \frac{\xi }{c}\eta \\ 0& 0& 0& \xi \phi & 1& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& \frac{\xi }{c}\eta & 0& 1\end{array}\right]$$
(4)
In Eq. (1), the indices $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$ run from $`1`$ to $`6`$ and

$$\xi =\sqrt{\frac{16\pi Gϵ_0}{c^2}},$$

is introduced in order to obtain the correct gravitational and electromagnetic static limits (Poisson equations) as shown in the appendix of Ref. GR (10). Also, in Eqs. (2-4), $`\epsilon _o=8.85\times 10^{12}\frac{c^2}{Nm^2},G=6.67\times 10^{11}\frac{Nm^2}{kg^2}`$ and $`c=3\times 10^8\frac{m}{s}`$. Dimensional consistency requires a magnetic charge $`g`$ measured in $`\frac{m}{s}c`$. The metric (4) involves the static potentials $`\phi `$ and $`\eta `$, and can easily be extended to include non-static fields Kaluza1 (1)-JMP1 (8). Nevertheless, for the ideas here presented, the static fields metric will be enough.

## III Klein’s hypothesis applied to $`x^6`$

Following Klein Klein2 (3), we write for the six dimensional momentum the equation:

$$p^6=m_g\dot{x}^6=\frac{g}{c\xi }$$
(5)
If we now apply the standard quantization rules to the quantity defined in Eq. (5), then:

$$\frac{g}{c\xi }=\frac{N_gh}{\mathrm{}_6}$$
(6)
where $`N_g`$ is an integer number, as required by the quantization of charge, and $`\mathrm{}_6`$ represents the characteristic length of the (compact) periodic six dimension. Use has been made of Eqs. (2-3). Equation (6) is a natural extension of Klein’s arguments regarding the sixth dimension and expresses the idea that its characteristic length is inversely proportional to the value of the magnetic monopole strength $`g`$.

## IV Characterization of the sixth dimension

There is no experimental evidence to fix the two parameters in Eq. (6): the characteristic length $`\mathrm{}_6`$ and the strength of the magnetic charge $`g`$. In this sense we propose two alternatives. Firstly, an assumption can be made about the size of the sixth dimension compared to $`\mathrm{}_5`$ which is given by

$$\mathrm{}_5=\frac{h}{e}\sqrt{\frac{16\pi G\epsilon _0}{c^2}}$$
(7)
If both compact dimensions posses the same characteristic length, then $`g`$ is simply given by $`g=qc`$. If otherwise, we assume a vanishing value for $`g`$, then $`\mathrm{}_6`$ would become infinite. This idea seems consistent with the existence of non-compact extra dimensions. If compactness is a property sought for dimensional spaces of $`d>4`$, the existence of the still undetected magnetic monopole would favour the idea.

The second alternative is to give a value for $`g`$ which fixes the length $`\mathrm{}_6`$. Most work regarding Kaluza-Klein theory in the context of magnetic monopoles is based on Dirac’s pioneering work Dirac2 (7). In that context, the magnetic monopole possesses a charge $`g=\frac{\epsilon _ohc^2}{e}=3.3\times 10^9C\frac{m}{s}`$ and thus,

$$\mathrm{}_6=\frac{e}{\epsilon _oc^2}\sqrt{16\pi G\epsilon _o}$$
(8)
In this case, by fixing the magnitude of the magnetic charge, one can determine the size of the sixth dimension which is smaller than the fifth dimension as determined by Klein. Moreover, the ratio between the two extra dimensions is found to be:

$$\frac{\mathrm{}_6}{\mathrm{}_5}=\frac{e^2}{h\epsilon _oc}=2\alpha $$
(9)
where $`\alpha `$ is the fine structure constant, which has been found to be related with the length of the extra dimensions in the Kaluza-Klein context by other authors freund (10).

## V Summary and discussion

In previous work, we’ve shown that Kaluza’s theory can be extended to six dimensions in order to include an elementary magnetic charge in electromagnetic theory. By doing so, Maxwell’s equations become symmetric and can be derived directly from Einstein’s field equations. Here, the theory formulated in Ref. JMP1 (8) has been complemented by applying the quantization hypothesis proposed by Klein for the fifth dimension to the new sixth dimension. As a result, an expression for the characteristic length of the sixth dimension is expressed in terms of the strength of the magnetic charge \[see Eq. (8)\]. In order to estimate either of these quantities we propose two alternatives. If $`\mathrm{}_6`$ is compared directly with $`\mathrm{}_5`$, a value for the magnetic charge is obtained. On the other hand, if $`g`$ is assumed to correspond to the value of Dirac’s monopole, the size of the sixth dimension that can be obtained is related with $`\mathrm{}_5`$ through the fine structure constant.

Most work extending Kaluza’s ideas is based on Gauge theories and topological arguments. The results here presented arise from a simpler methodology in which the dimensionality of space-time is increased in the same way Kaluza did in his classic paper. Hence, Klein’s hypothesis can be applied directly to the extra dimension and thus, the analysis can be done in a straightforward and simple manner.

Kaluza’s idea has been abandoned for years for various reasons, one of them being the mass spectra of the particles obtained in five dimensions Straumann (12). In this sense we wish to point out that the topology in 6 dimensions may differ with the one in which that calculation is based. Calculating the mass spectra in a new topology is a task worth pursuing since, as some drawbacks of Kaluza’s classical theory were surmounted by extending the metric in Ref. JMP1 (8), new elements may enter the calculation for the mass spectra and modify the results whereas more symmetry is achieved.

It is the opinion of the authors that physical ideas leading to simple measurable properties of spaces of more than four dimensions must be pursued. Part of this work has already been introduced in the form of a Kaluza-Klein magnetohydrodynamical framework Nos3 (13, 10). We believe that the present work is another step in this direction.

This work has been supported by CONACyT (Mexico), project 41081-F and FICSAC (Mexico), PFSA.


text:
# Critical behavior of the 3-state Potts model on Sierpinski carpet

## 1 Introduction

Critical phenomena on fractal structures have been first studied by Gefen et al. . Since then, most of the works on this topic have been done in the framework of the Ising model. Recently, the use of cluster algorithms and histogram methods enabled two groups  to study the ferromagnetic Ising transition on the fractal lattices by Monte Carlo simulation much more thoroughly than before; several fractal dimensions between $`1`$ and $`3`$ have been investigated. These last results show that the scaling corrections can strongly affect the finite size behavior of some thermodynamical quantities, especially when the fractal dimension is lowered from $`2`$ to $`1`$; the critical exponents cannot always be calculated, but bounds can be provided. The available values and bounds of the exponents are consistent with the hyperscaling relation provided that the space dimension is replaced by the Hausdorff one. Furthermore, they do not agree with $`ϵ`$-expansion results . The critical behavior of fractals is said to be understood in the framework of weak universality : the critical exponents do not only depend upon the symmetry of the order parameter, the interaction range, and the fractal dimension, but also upon geometrical features of the fractal structure.

The Potts model is a generalization of the Ising model obtained by varying the number of spin states from $`2`$ to any non zero value $`q`$. Since the number of states $`q`$ is related to the symmetrical properties of the order parameter, the critical behavior of the Potts model depends upon the value of this additional variable . One of the most striking results is the effect of $`q`$ on the order of the transition as a function of the space dimension $`d`$: In the case of regular translational invariant lattices, it has been shown that the ferromagnetic phase transition is a second order one if $`q`$ is smaller than a value $`q_c(d)`$ and a first order one if $`q>`$ $`q_c(d)`$. For instance, the phase transition in the bidimensional case is first order for $`q>4`$ and second order for $`q4`$; the value of $`q_c(3)`$ is smaller than $`3`$. Moreover, a wide variety of effects occur in the presence of disorder: bond randomness can induce a second order transition from a system exhibiting a first order one . The order of the transition can be changed to a second one if strong enough aperiodic fluctuations are introduced .

The question arises whether the values $`q_c(d)`$ make sense in non integer dimensions $`d_f`$ or not. Fractals are natural candidates to interpolate between integer space dimensions. Since translation invariance is broken in these structures, disorder is introduced: the lattice is strongly inhomogeneous. Thus, two among the three parameters driving the critical behavior of the Potts model (structured fractal disorder and dimensionality) are closely linked in the present case of fractals. The critical properties of the Potts model on fractal structures have never been studied before, excepted by Bin  who generalizes the Migdal-Kadanoff bond-moving renormalization scheme on the Sierpinski carpet from the Ising model  to the Potts one. No Monte Carlo results are available, up to now; there are two main reasons why studies of the critical behaviors on fractal structures is a difficult task:

1. Monte Carlo simulations come up against critical slowing down. Fortunately, the use of cluster algorithms  is very helpful in overcoming this difficulty.
2. The scaling corrections are expected to be large . A reliable analysis, hence, requires simulations on several large lattices of the same structure. Due to the self-similar character of the underlying network, the sizes of the lattices increase as a geometrical series. We face the high C.P.U. time consuming problem in the simulations.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a thorough study of the 3-state Potts model on the deterministic Sierpinski carpets of a given fractal dimension. The order of the transition has to be carefully checked before calculating the critical temperature and exponents. The paper is organized as follows: The model and the finite size scaling theory are briefly recalled in Sec.2.1 and Sec.2.2. The simulation methods are described in Sec.2.3. The critical behavior of the $`3`$-state Potts model on the deterministic Sierpinski carpet is studied in Sec.3.

## 2 Methods and theoretical background

### 2.1 Sierpinski carpet $`SC(3,1)`$ and Potts model

The lattice structures we deal with are constructed according to an iterative segmentation process: we start from a generating cell denoted $`SC(3,1,1)`$, which is a $`3\times 3`$ square lattice where the central square is removed. The lattice $`SC(3,1,k)`$ associated with the $`k^{th}`$ iteration step is constructed by replacing each occupied square of $`SC(3,1,k1)`$ by the generating cell while enlarging the side $`3`$ times. The size of the lattice $`SC(3,1,k)`$ is $`L=3^k`$ and the number of occupied sites $`N_L^{occ}=(3^21^2)^k`$. The Hausdorff dimension $`d_f`$, defined in such a manner that $`N_L^{occ}=L^{d_f}`$, is equal to $`\mathrm{ln}(8)/\mathrm{ln}(3)1.892789`$. The Sierpinski carpet $`SC(3,1,k)`$ becomes a true fractal in the mathematical sense when $`k`$ tends to infinity, and we will denote it $`SC(3,1)`$.

The Hamiltonian of the $`q`$-state Potts model on $`SC(3,1,k)`$ reads :

$$H=J\underset{i,j}{}\delta (\sigma _i,\sigma _j),$$
(1)
where $`\sigma _i`$ and $`\sigma _j`$ stand for the spin states on the sites $`i`$ and $`j`$ and can take the integer values $`1,2,\mathrm{},q`$. $`\delta (\sigma _i,\sigma _j)`$ is the Kronecker $`\delta `$-function, and $`J`$ is the coupling constant. The sum runs over the nearest-neighbor bonds on $`SC(3,1,k)`$. The order parameter per site of the Potts model is defined as :

$$m_L=\frac{q\rho _L1}{q1}$$
(2)
where $`\rho _L=\mathrm{max}(n_1,n_2,\mathrm{},n_q)/N_L^{occ}`$ is the largest density of spin state, since $`n_s`$ is the number of spins in state $`s`$. We notice that the values of $`m_L`$ lie in a range between $`0`$ and $`1`$. We will focus our attention on the $`3`$-state Potts model.

### 2.2 Finite size scaling for second order and first order phase transitions

Finite size scaling theory has been first developed by Fisher et al.  in the case of the second order phase transitions. According to Widom’s homogeneity hypothesis, applying to a system with translational symmetry, the singular part of the free energy per spin of the system under a change of the unit length from $`1`$ to $`b`$ is assumed to scale as

$$f(t,h,L)=b^df(tb^{y_t},hb^{y_h},L/b)$$
(3)
where $`d`$ is the lattice dimension, $`L`$ is the original lattice size, $`y_t`$ and $`y_h`$ are eigenvalue exponents, $`t=(TT_c)/T_c`$ is the reduced temperature with $`T_c`$ representing the critical temperature on the infinite lattice, and $`h`$ is the external field; $`t`$ and $`h`$ are supposed to be small, and $`b`$ smaller than the correlation length $`\xi `$. This hypothesis (Eq.(3)) has to be generalized in the case of fractals by restricting the choice of $`b`$ to a power of the size of the generating cell of the Sierpinski lattice in order to keep invariant the structure of the renormalized lattice. Also, one has to replace the dimension $`d`$ in Eq.(3) by the Hausdorff dimension $`d_f`$ of the fractal; the factor $`b^{d_f}`$ describes how the number of spins decreases under the change of the unit length. Moreover, since the translational symmetry is lost on Sierpinski lattices, the two point correlation function depends on the positions of the spins. Hence, the definition of the correlation length on the fractal lattices has to be adapted. A position-independent correlation function of one scalar variable $`r`$ can be defined by taking the average of the two point correlation function values over all the pairs of spins having direct distance equal to $`r`$. The position-independent correlation function behaves as $`\mathrm{exp}(r/\xi (T))/r^{d2+\eta }`$ in the critical region in the case of translational symmetry networks. We assume that it keeps a similar behavior on fractal lattices too. For a second order phase transition system, $`\xi (T)`$ diverges at the critical point. We, therefore, expect that $`\xi (T)`$ reaches the finite lattice size $`L`$ while $`T`$ is in the neighborhood of $`T_c`$. In this temperature region, we can take $`b`$ equal to the limiting value $`L`$ and it yields the zero-external field scaling equations for the fractal lattice as:

$`C_L(T)`$ $``$ $`L^{\alpha /\nu }T𝒞(tL^{1/\nu })`$ (4)
$`m_L(T)`$ $``$ $`L^{\beta /\nu }(tL^{1/\nu })`$ (5)
$`\chi _L(T)`$ $``$ $`L^{\gamma /\nu }𝒳(tL^{1/\nu })`$ (6)
$`\varphi _L(T)`$ $``$ $`L^{1/\nu }T^2𝒫(tL^{1/\nu })`$ (7)
$`U_L(T)`$ $``$ $`T𝒰(tL^{1/\nu })`$ (8)
where $`C_L(T)`$ is the heat capacity per site, $`m_L(T)`$ the order parameter per site, $`\chi _L(T)`$ the zero field susceptibility of the order parameter per site, $`\varphi _L(T)\mathrm{ln}m_L(T)/(k_BT)^1`$ usually called the first logarithmic derivative of the order parameter, and $`U_L(T)1m_L^4(T)/(3m_L^2(T)^2)`$ the Binder’s cumulant. The critical exponents $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$, $`\gamma `$ and $`\nu `$ can be written as a function of the two independent eigenvalue exponents $`y_t`$ and $`y_h`$ and the dimension $`d_f`$. $`\alpha `$ is equal to $`2d_f/y_t`$, $`\beta `$ is equal to $`(d_fy_h)/y_t`$, $`\gamma `$ is equal to $`(2y_hd_f)/y_t`$, and $`\nu `$ is equal to $`1/y_t`$. The finite-size shifting of the rounded singularity of a given thermodynamical average $`\kappa `$ (for instance, $`\varphi `$, $`\chi `$, and $`C`$) from the critical point should follow the relation :

$$T^\kappa (L)=T_c+g_\kappa L^{1/\nu },$$
(9)
where the $`g_\kappa `$’s are some constants. Moreover, the width of the associated rounded singularity should scale as $`L^{1/\nu }`$.

For a system undergoing a first order phase transition, Fisher et al.  and Cardy et al.  propose that the relevant eigenvalue exponents in Eq.(3) should reach their allowed limiting values, said $`y_t=d`$ and $`y_h=d`$, in the phenomenological studies. In the case of the Sierpinski lattice, $`y_t`$ and $`y_h`$ should take the value of the Hausdorff dimension $`d_f`$. The thermodynamical averages on the fractal lattice, therefore, scale as:

$`C_L(T)`$ $``$ $`L^{d_f}T𝒞(tL^{d_f})`$ (10)
$`\chi _L(T)`$ $``$ $`L^{d_f}𝒳(tL^{d_f})`$ (11)
$`\varphi _L(T)`$ $``$ $`L^{d_f}T^2𝒫(tL^{d_f})`$ (12)
Moreover, they are characterized by $`\delta `$-function like singularities as the lattice size $`L`$ increases ; as a result, the areas under the curves displaying a given average as a function of the temperature should be independent of $`L`$. Also, it is well known that the probability distribution of the energy is double peaked in the vicinity of the transition temperature .

### 2.3 Simulation process

We implement the Wolff  and Swendsen-Wang  Monte Carlo cluster algorithms; both of them have been shown to largely overcome the critical slowing down. In order to save simulation time, we used alternatively the two algorithms in our studies. Let us describe the simulation process in a more precise way. An initial configuration is built up by randomly assigning one of the three spin states to each occupied site of the lattice $`SC(3,1,k)`$. Periodic boundary conditions will be used. A simulation temperature $`T_0`$ is set and enough Wolff or Swendsen-Wang Monte Carlo steps are performed in order to ensure that the configuration has been thermalized. The energy per site $`ϵ_L(T_0)`$ and the order parameter per site $`m_L(T_0)`$ are then calculated for every Monte Carlo step. One million steps are collected to be a sample and the above procedure is started again at least ten times. The histogram method , applied within each sample, allows the thermodynamical averages of a physical quantity $`g`$ to be calculated over a range $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ around $`T_0`$; we denote it $`g(T_0)_T`$. The reliability of the calculated averages over the temperature interval must be carefully checked on. $`\varphi _L(T)`$, $`\chi _L(T)`$, $`C_L(T)`$, and $`U_L(T)`$ are then obtained according to the following relations:

$`\varphi _L(T)`$ $`=`$ $`N_L^{occ}\left(ϵ_L(T_0)_T{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_L(T_0)m_L(T_0)_T}{m_L(T_0)_T}}\right)`$ (13)
$`\chi _L(T)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{N_L^{occ}(m_L^2(T_0)_Tm_L(T_0)_T^2)}{k_BT}}`$ (14)
$`C_L(T)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{N_L^{occ}(ϵ_L^2(T_0)_Tϵ_L(T_0)_T^2)}{k_BT^2}}`$ (15)
$`U_L(T)`$ $`=`$ $`1{\displaystyle \frac{m_L^4(T_0)_T}{3m_L^2(T_0)_T^2}}.`$ (16)
The statistical errors associated with the thermodynamical averages are estimated by calculating the standard deviations from the ten samples.

## 3 Results and discussions

### 3.1 Studies of rounded singularities of $`\chi _L(T)`$ and $`\varphi _L(T)`$

First, we study the order of the phase transition of the $`3`$-state Potts model in the case of the fractal $`SC(3,1)`$. The behavior of the finite-size rounded singularities of $`\chi _L(T)`$ calculated from our simulations are shown in Fig.$`1`$ for $`L=27,81,243,729,`$ and $`2187`$. The maximum values $`\chi _L^{max}`$ and their associated temperatures $`T^\chi (L)`$ are reported in Table 1. The finite-size shifts of $`\chi _L^{max}`$ are clearly observed; the Lorentz distribution is a better candidate to fit the rounded singularity than the Gaussian one:

$$\chi _L(T)=\frac{2A}{\pi }\left[\frac{W}{4(TT^\chi (L))^2+W^2}\right]$$
(17)
The width of the Lorentz distribution is $`W`$ and the area under the distribution curve is $`A`$. The two-parameter fits $`(W,A)`$ of the rounded singularities are reported in Table 2. It appears clearly that the area $`A`$ under the Lorentz distribution increases as $`L`$ increases; as a result of this, we can conclude that the singularity is not $`\delta `$-function like as $`L`$ tends to infinity. We have the first evidence that the phase transition is not a first order one. According to the finite size scaling for second order phase transitions, the width $`W`$ should scale as $`L^{1/\nu }`$ and the area $`A`$ as $`L^{\gamma /\nu 1/\nu }`$. The log-log plots of $`W`$ and $`A`$ versus $`L`$ do not appear straight lines over the whole range from $`L=27`$ to $`L=2187`$; they exhibit a slight curvature, which can be interpreted as a contribution of scaling corrections to the behavior of $`W`$ and $`A`$. The slopes calculated from two consecutive points from $`L=27`$ to $`L=2187`$ are $`0.786(17)`$, $`0.701(11)`$, $`0.6243(60)`$, $`0.5524(35)`$ for $`W`$ and $`0.897(12)`$, $`0.9867(81)`$, $`1.0635(40)`$, $`1.1634(25)`$ for $`A`$. The effect of the scaling corrections in the case of fractal lattices has been pointed out and discussed in the framework of the Ising model by Monceau et al.  and Carmona et al. . Instead of a power law, $`W`$ is expected to behave as $`L^{1/\nu }(1+\phi _W(L))`$ where the scaling corrections $`\phi _w(L)`$ tend to zero as $`L`$ tends to infinity; usually, $`\phi _W(L)`$ is developed as $`\phi _W(L)=𝒜_WL^\omega `$, where $`𝒜_W`$ is the amplitude of the corrections and $`\omega `$ an additional exponent. A similar behavior is expected for $`A`$. There is no hope to calculate the scaling corrections in a reliable way from our simulations. However, the slopes calculated above enable to estimate an upper bound for $`1/\nu `$ to be $`0.5524(35)`$ and a lower bound for $`\gamma /\nu 1/\nu `$ to be $`1.1634(25)`$.

We now pay attention to the maxima $`\chi _L^{max}`$ of $`\chi _L(T),`$ and $`\varphi _L^{max}`$ of $`\varphi _L(T)`$, reported in Table 1. The log-log plot of $`\chi _L^{max}`$ shows a straight line. The power law fits are satisfied with reliability coefficients equal to $`1.0000`$; they yield $`\gamma /\nu =1.6948(37)`$ with a four sizes fit from $`L=81`$ to $`L=2187`$ and $`\gamma /\nu =1.7013(28)`$ with a three sizes fit from $`L=243`$ to $`L=2187`$. The scaling corrections turn out to be very weak in the case of the maxima of the susceptibility, as already shown in the case of the Ising model. The best estimate of $`\gamma /\nu `$ is $`1.7013(28)`$. Finite size scaling theory states that the slope of the line represents the exponent $`\gamma /\nu `$ if the phase transition is second order and that it should be the Hausdorff dimension $`d_f`$ if the transition is first order. The stability of the fits involving $`\chi _L^{max}`$ enable to conclude that $`\gamma /\nu `$ is significantly different from $`d_f=1.892789`$ and, therefore, consistent with a second order phase transition as we have shown at the beginning of this paragraph. On the other hand, $`\varphi _L^{max}`$ suffers from large scaling corrections since the slopes of two successive points of $`\varphi _L^{max}`$ in a log-log plot are measured as $`0.758(20)`$, $`0.669(11)`$, $`0.613(13)`$, and $`0.533(11)`$. These large scaling corrections may be due to the deviation of the average number of nearest neighbors on the finite size fractal from that on the infinite fractal  because the critical temperature is directly related to the average number of nearest neighbors in the mean filed theory and the eignvalue exponent $`y_t=1/\nu `$ describes the scaling behavior of the reduced temperature. The behavior of $`\varphi _L^{max}`$ provides an upper bound for $`1/\nu `$, which is $`1/\nu =y_t0.533(11)`$. Combining $`\gamma /\nu =1.7013(28)`$ with $`1/\nu 0.533(11)`$, we get a lower bound for $`(\gamma /\nu 1/\nu )`$, which is $`1.168(11)`$. These bounds are both very close to the ones we got from the fits of $`W`$ and $`A`$. The eigenvalue exponent $`y_h`$ can be calculated from $`(\gamma /\nu +d_f)/2`$ and is equal to $`1.7970(15)`$.

The comparison between the present value of $`\gamma /\nu `$ and the one associated with the Ising model for the same fractal structure $`(\gamma /\nu =1.732(4))`$  enables to distinguish the Ising and the 3-state Potts model universality classes. We mention that this comparison makes sense only if the fractal structures are exactly the same because the universality is said to be weak .

### 3.2 Estimation of the critical temperature $`T_c`$

The infinite lattice critical temperature $`T_c`$ can be calculated from the finite-size shifts of the rounded singularities provided that $`\nu `$ is known; for a given peaked thermodynamical average $`\kappa `$, the equation $`(\text{9})`$ yields:

$$T_c=\frac{T^\kappa (\mathrm{}L)\mathrm{}^{1/\nu }T^\kappa (L)}{1\mathrm{}^{1/\nu }}$$
(18)
where $`\mathrm{}=3`$ is the size of the generating cell. In this form, the value of $`T_c`$ is deduced from two consecutive iteration steps of the fractal structure. An upper bound for $`1/\nu `$ will yield an upper bound for $`T_c`$ since $`T^\chi (L)`$ and $`T^\varphi (L)`$ decrease as L increases. Taking $`1/\nu =0.533(11)`$, the values of $`T^\chi (L)`$ from the two highest iteration steps provide the first estimate for the upper bound of $`T_c`$ equal to $`0.67324(1264)`$. The values of $`T^\varphi (L)`$ from the two highest iteration steps yield $`0.67357(1456)`$ as a second upper bound for $`T_c`$. The errors in the above bounds mainly come from the error propagation of $`1/\nu `$. We can conclude that $`T_c<0.673(12)`$.

An alternative way to measure $`T_c`$ without knowing $`\nu `$ is to study the Binder’s cumulant crossing points . Fig.$`2`$ shows that the cumulant curves for different lattice sizes do not intersect at a fixed point. We call $`T_{k1,k}`$ the temperature of the cumulant intersection point between the iteration steps $`(k1)`$ and $`k`$. The measured values are: $`T_{2,3}=0.68461(54)`$, $`T_{3,4}=0.67923(26)`$, $`T_{4,5}=0.67594(20)`$, $`T_{5,6}=0.673916(69)`$, and $`T_{6,7}=0.672866(50)`$. The difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_k=(T_{k1,k}T_{k,k+1})`$ behaves basically as a geometrical series as a function of $`k`$. If we write $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_k=ar_3r_4\mathrm{}r_k`$ where $`r_k=\mathrm{\Delta }T_k/\mathrm{\Delta }T_{k1}`$, $`k4`$, and $`ar_3=\mathrm{\Delta }T_3`$, we will find $`1>r_4r_5r_6\mathrm{}`$. This enables us to claim that the series $`\{T_{k,k+1}\}`$ converges as $`k`$ tends to infinity. The convergent value calculated from the three intersection points $`T_{4,5}`$, $`T_{5,6}`$, and $`T_{6,7}`$ gives a lower bound for the critical temperature: $`0.671737`$. We finally conclude that $`0.671737<T_c<T_{6,7}=0.672866`$. This range is in agreement with the upper bound for $`T_c`$ extracted from Eq.(9).

### 3.3 Simulation near $`T_c`$

We firstly check the occurence of a single peak in the energy probability distributions, which confirms again that the transition is second order. A typical energy probability distribution is shown in Fig.$`3`$. We then study the behaviors of $`\varphi _L(T)`$, $`\chi _L(T)`$, and $`m_L(T)`$ within the previously estimated temperature range for $`T_c`$. The following three temperatures will be considered: $`0.671737`$, $`0.672866`$, and $`0.673241`$. The first two temperatures are the lower and the upper bounds extracted from the Binder’s cumulant crossing and the last one is the upper bound calculated from Eq.$`(\text{18})`$, assuming that $`1/\nu =0.533`$ and using the positions of the peaks of $`\chi _L`$ at $`L=729`$ and $`L=2187`$. The log-log plots of $`m_L(T)`$, $`\chi _L(T)`$, and $`\varphi _L(T)`$ at the three considered temperatures are shown in Fig.$`4`$. $`m_L`$ shows a straight line in the log-log plot, at $`T=0.671737`$, over a range of lattice sizes covering several orders of magnitude, with a slope, measured from $`L=243`$, $`L=729`$, and $`L=2187`$, equal to $`0.0748(1)`$. When the temperature increases towards the upper bound, $`m_L(T)`$ becomes more and more concave while $`\chi _L(T)`$ is more and more convex. The asymptotic slopes for $`m_L(T)`$ obtained from the measurements beween the largest sizes $`L=729`$ and $`L=2187`$ are upper bounded at $`T=0.672866`$ and $`T=0.673241`$, respectively, by $`0.0876(2)`$ and $`0.0932(2)`$; and the asymptotic slopes for $`\chi _L(T)`$ at $`T=0.671737`$, $`T=0.672866`$, and $`T=0.673241`$ are lower bounded by $`1.60(1)`$, $`1.73(1)`$, and $`1.78(1)`$. On the other hand, the curvature of $`\varphi _L(T)`$ in a log-log plot varies in the opposite direction, that is, the curve is less convex at the higher temperature bound ($`T=0.673241`$) than at the lower one ($`T=0.671737`$). The asymptotic slopes for $`\varphi _L(T)`$ at $`T=0.671737`$, $`T=0.672866`$, and $`T=0.673241`$ are upper bounded by $`0.466(13)`$, $`0.521(10)`$, $`0.552(11)`$. The scaling corrections, depending on the physical quantities, turn out to affect strongly the critical behavior of the 3-state Potts model on the fractal structure even when the sizes are large. The estimation of the ratio of critical exponents $`\beta /\nu `$, $`\gamma /\nu `$, and $`1/\nu `$ from the behavior of $`m_L`$, $`\chi _L`$, and $`\varphi _L`$ in the critical region becomes a very difficult task: firstly, the value of the critical temperature cannot be provided precisely; secondly, even if we expect scaling corrections to tend to zero as $`L`$ tends towards infinity (whatever thermodynamic quantity is studied), they should be included in the calculation of our exponents; as already explained in Sec.3.1, there is no hope to extract scaling corrections from our data. We point out that the scaling corrections in the critical region are stronger than that for the case of Ising model. In the case of Ising model, the slope of $`\chi _L(T)`$ extracted at the expected critical temperature is consistent with the value of $`\gamma /\nu `$ extracted from $`\chi _L^{max}`$ .

### 3.4 Discussions

The consistency of our full set of results can be achieved in the following way: The behavior of the Binder cumulant shows that $`T_c`$ should be greater than $`0.671737`$ and smaller than $`0.682866`$. From the behavior of $`\chi _L(T)`$, the asymptotic slopes in this temperature region are lower bounded by 1.60(1), consistent with the value $`\gamma /\nu =1.7013(29)`$ extracted from $`\chi _L^{max}`$. The asymptotic slopes for $`m_L(T)`$ in the region are always smaller than -0.0748(1) and, thus, yield $`\beta /\nu >0.0748(1)`$, consistent with the requirement of the hyperscaling relation, said $`\beta /\nu =(d_f\gamma /\nu )/2=0.0957(21)`$ with $`\gamma /\nu `$ taking the value 1.7013(29). Similarly, $`1/\nu <0.521(11)`$ can be found from the behavior of $`\varphi _L(T)`$ in this temperature region, consistent with the results in the studies of $`\varphi _L^{max}`$. We, therefore, give the best value and bounds of the exponents and the critical temperature that we find: $`\gamma /\nu =1.7013(29)`$, $`\beta /\nu >0.0748(1)`$, $`1/\nu <0.521(11)`$, and $`0.671737<T_c<0.672866`$.

The critical temperature and the exponents of the 3-state Potts model on a two dimensional regular system are known to take the following values : $`T_c=1/\mathrm{ln}(1+\sqrt{3})0.995`$, $`1/\nu =6/5`$, $`\beta /\nu =2/15`$, and $`\gamma /\nu =26/15`$. We find that the values of $`T_c`$, $`1/\nu `$, $`\beta /\nu `$ and $`\gamma /\nu `$ for the 3-state Potts model are smaller in the case of the Sierpinski carpet we investigated than in the case of the two dimensional regular system. A similar situation occurs in the case of the Ising model on Sierpinski carpets  where, regardless of the structure of the fractals, those values decrease as the Hausdorff dimension decreases.

Discrepancies are observed between our simulation results and Bin’s predictions. Bin  found by applying the method of Migdal-Kadanoff bond-moving renormalization, that $`\mathrm{exp}(K)=0.746`$ (which is equivalent to $`T_c=3.4126`$) and $`y_K(=y_t)=0.619`$ for the 3-state Potts model on the same Sierpinski carpet we studied in this paper. There are mainly two reasons for the occurence of discrepancies: firstly, the Migdal-Kadanoff bond-moving renormalization is an approximate method; secondly, in Bin’s case the spins were located at the vertices of the occupied squares of the Sierpinski carpet while they are located at the centers of the occupied squares in the present work; it yields a different universality class because the duality is no more held on fractal lattices.

In conclusion, we have carefully performed the first Monte Carlo studies for the $`3`$-state Potts model on the Sierpinski carpet with $`d_f1.8928`$. Although the system exhibits strong scaling corrections, the consistency of our results demonstrates the validity of the finite size scaling theory for the $`q`$-state Potts model on these fractal lattices. Nevertheless, scaling corrections tend to increase while $`q`$ is passing from $`2`$ (Ising model) to $`3`$. We, hence, expect the raise of these difficulties in the studies of the phase transition while $`q`$ goes larger. In the coming future, we will be able to perform in a reliable way the studies for the Potts model with larger $`q`$ on fractal dimensions higher than 2.

## Acknowledgements

A part of numerical simulations has been carried out in the national center of computational resources IDRIS, supported by the CNRS (project number $`991186`$). We acknowledge the scientific committee and the staff of the center. We are also grateful to the research computational center (CCR) of the university of Paris VII – Denis Diderot, where the rest of the simulations have been done.

## Figure captions

1. Rounded singularities of the susceptibility on lattice $`SC(3,1,k)`$ where $`k=3`$, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Each segment represents the reliabe temperature range of the histogram method where the simulation temperature is located in its center. The fitting by Lorentz distribution for the susceptibility on $`SC(3,1,7)`$ is plot in order to clearly indicate the location of the rounded singularity.
2. Binder’s cumulant crossings.
3. Probability distribution of energy per site on $`SC(3,1,7)`$. It’s made of 10 million Monte Carlo data and seperated by 500 histogram classes. The simulation temperature is taken at 0.672845.
4. Log-log plot of $`m_L`$, $`\chi _L`$, and $`\varphi _L`$ at $`T=0.671737`$ (open square), $`0.672866`$ (open circle), and $`0.673241`$ (open triangle) on the Sierpinski carpet $`SC(3,1,k)`$.