Inverted Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless singularity and high-temperature algebraic order in an Ising model on a scale-free hierarchical-lattice small-world network

Abstract

We have obtained exact results for the Ising model on a hierarchical lattice incorporating three key features characterizing many real-world networks-a scale-free degree distribution, a high clustering coefficient, and the small-world effect. By varying the probability p of long-range bonds, the entire spectrum from an unclustered, non-small-world network to a highly clustered, small-world system is studied. Using the self-similar structure of the network, we obtain analytic expressions for the degree distribution P(k) and clustering coefficient C for all p, as well as the average path length center dot for p=0 and 1. The ferromagnetic Ising model on this network is studied through an exact renormalization-group transformation of the quenched bond probability distribution, using up to 562 500 renormalized probability bins to represent the distribution. For p < 0.494, we find power-law critical behavior of the magnetization and susceptibility, with critical exponents continuously varying with p, and exponential decay of correlations away from T-c. For p >= 0.494, in fact where the network exhibits small-world character, the critical behavior radically changes: We find a highly unusual phase transition, namely an inverted Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless singularity, between a low-temperature phase with nonzero magnetization and finite correlation length and a high-temperature phase with zero magnetization and infinite correlation length, with power-law decay of correlations throughout the phase. Approaching T-c from below, the magnetization and the susceptibility, respectively, exhibit the singularities of exp(-C/root T-c-T) and exp(D/root T-c-T), with C and D positive constants. With long-range bond strengths decaying with distance, we see a phase transition with power-law critical singularities for all p, and evaluate an unusually narrow critical region and important corrections to power-law behavior that depend on the exponent characterizing the decay of long-range interactions.