The ferromagnetic―spin glass transition in PdMn alloys: symmetry breaking of ferromagnetism and spin glass studied by a multicanonical method

The magnetism of Pd(1-x)Mn(x) is investigated theoretically. A localized spin model for Mn spins that interact with short-range antiferromagnetic interactions and long-range ferromagnetic interactions via itinerant d electrons is set up, with no adjustable parameters. A multicanonical Monte Carlo simulation, combined with a procedure of symmetry breaking, is employed to discriminate between the ferromagnetic and spin glass orders. The transition temperature and the low-temperature phase are determined from the temperature variation of the specific heat and the probability distributions of the ferromagnetic order parameter and the spin glass order parameter at different concentrations. The calculation results reveal that only the ferromagnetic phase exists at x 0.04, and that the two phases coexist at intermediate concentrations. This result agrees semi-quantitatively with experimental results.