Ferromagnets from higher SU(N) representations

Abstract

We present a general formalism for deriving the thermodynamics of ferromagnets consisting of “atoms” carrying an arbitrary irreducible representation of SU(N) and coupled through long-range two-body quadratic interactions. Using this formalism, we derive the thermodynamics and phase structure of ferromagnets with atoms in the doubly symmetric or doubly antisymmetric irreducible representations. The symmetric representation leads to a paramagnetic and a ferromagnetic phase with transitions similar to the ones for the fundamental representation studied before. The antisymmetric representation presents qualitatively new features, leading to a paramagnetic and two distinct ferromagnetic phases that can coexist over a range of temperatures, two of them becoming metastable. Our results are relevant to magnetic systems of atoms with reduced symmetry in their interactions compared to the fundamental case.