Simplest model to study reentrance in physical systems

Abstract

We numerically investigate the necessary ingredients for reentrant behavior in the phase diagram of physical systems. Studies on the possibly simplest model that exhibits reentrance, the two-dimensional random-bond Ising model, show that reentrant behavior is generic whenever frustration is present in the model. For both discrete and continuous disorder distributions, the phase diagram in the disorder-temperature plane is found to be reentrant, where for some disorder strengths a paramagnetic phase exists at both high and low temperatures, but an ordered ferromagnetic phase exists for intermediate temperatures.