https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2016-60329-4
Review
Plaquette Ising models, degeneracy and scaling
1 Department of Mathematics, School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, Scotland
2 Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Leipzig, Postfach 100 920, 04009 Leipzig, Germany
a e-mail: D.A.Johnston@hw.ac.uk
b e-mail: Marco.Mueller@itp.uni-leipzig.de
c e-mail: Wolfhard.Janke@itp.uni-leipzig.de
Received: 16 October 2016
Revised: 30 November 2016
Published online: 5 April 2017
We review some recent investigations of the 3d plaquette Ising model. This displays a strong first-order phase transition with unusual scaling properties due to the size-dependent degeneracy of the low-temperature phase. In particular, the leading scaling correction is modified from the usual inverse volume behaviour ∝ 1/L3 to 1/L2. The degeneracy also has implications for the magnetic order in the model which has an intermediate nature between local and global order and gives rise to novel fracton topological defects in a related quantum Hamiltonian.
© The Author(s) 2017
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