Monte Carlo study of the critical behavior of random bond Potts models

We present results of Monte Carlo simulations of random bond Potts models i n two dimensions, for different numbers of Potts states q. We introduce a s imple scheme which yields continuous self-dual distributions of the interac tions. As expected, we find multifractal behavior of the correlation functi ons at the critical point and obtain estimates of the exponent eta(n), for several moments n of the correlation functions, including typical (n -->0), average (n = 1), and others. In addition, for q = 8, we find that there is only a single correlation length exponent v describing the correlation len gth away from criticality. This is numerically very close to the pure Ising value v = 1. [S0163-1829(99)03929-6].