Cluster percolation and first order phase transitions in the Potts model

Fortunato S, Satz H. Cluster percolation and first order phase transitions in the Potts model. NUCLEAR PHYSICS B. 2002;623(3):493-502.The q-state Potts model can be formulated in geometric terms, with Fortuin-Kasteleyn (FK) clusters as fundamental objects. For vanishing external field, the phase transition of the model can be equivalently described as a percolation transition of FK clusters. In this work, we investigate numerically the percolation behaviour along the line of first-order phase transitions of the 3d 3-state Potts model in a non-vanishing external field and find that the percolation strength exhibits a discontinuity along the entire line. The endpoint is also a percolation point for the FK clusters, but the corresponding critical exponents are neither in the Ising nor in the random percolation universality class. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V