Mjp. Nijmeijer et al., FERROMAGNETIC ORDER-DISORDER TRANSITION IN AN ISING FLUID, Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics, 57(1), 1998, pp. 465-474
The Ising fluid we have investigated is a system of hard spheres which
carry an Ising spin. A short range ferromagnetic potential acts betwe
en particles. A renormalization group study of the model, based on the
hierarchical reference theory of fluids, gives quantitative predictio
ns on the phase diagram and the phase boundaries. The model can show t
wo distinct phase transitions: a magnetic order-disorder transition an
d a liquid-vapor phase separation which meet at a tricritical point. T
he critical properties of the magnetic transition have been studied by
Monte Carlo simulations at two densities in systems with up to 4000 p
articles. The locations of the critical points are in good agreement w
ith the theoretical estimates. However, a finite-size scaling analysis
shows effective critical exponents which deviate from the expected Is
ing values. These discrepancies resemble the analogous result of a pre
vious numerical study of Heisenberg fluids. Here they are interpreted
as due to crossover phenomena, partly related to Fisher exponent renor
malization induced by the presence of noncritical density fluctuations
.