Kinetic phase transition in the mixed-spin Ising model

In this work we studied a ferromagnetic mixed-spin Ising model including a single ion crystal-field term. The model system consists of two interpenetrating sublattices with spins sigma = 1/2 and S = 1. The spins sigma = 1/2 occupy the sites of one sublattice, their nearest-neighbours are spins S on the other sublattice, and vice versa. The system is in contact with a heat bath, the spins flipping according to the Metropolis transition rate and, at the same time, subject to an external flow of energy, which is simulated by a two-spin flip process. The model is studied via the dynamical pair approximation and through Monte Carlo simulations. We have determined the phase diagram of the model in the plane crystal-field D versus competition parameter p. The parameter p accounts for the competition between the one- and two-spin flip processes. In the pair approximation, the phase diagram, at high temperatures, present three phases separated by two transition lines: a continuous transition line between the ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases, and a first-order transition line between the paramag-netic and antiferromagnetic phases. However, Monte Carlo simulations predict the same topology for the phase diagram as the pair approximation, but all the transition lines are continuous for any value of the temperature