A macroscopically constrained Wang-Landau Monte Carlo method was recently proposed to calculate the joint density of states (DOS) for systems with multiple order parameters. Here we demonstrate results for a nearest-neighbor Ising antiferromagnet with ferromagnetic long-range interactions (a model spin-crossover material). Its two relevant order parameters are the magnetization $M$ and the staggered magnetization $M_{\rm s}$. The joint DOS, $g(E,M,M_{\rm s})$ where $E$ is the total system energy, is calculated for zero external field and long-range interaction strength, and then obtained for arbitrary values of these two field-like model parameters by a simple transformation of $E$. Illustrations are shown for several parameter sets.
In this work, we present a comparative study of the accuracy provided by the Wang-Landau sampling and the Broad Histogram method to estimate de density of states of the two dimensional Ising ferromagnet. The microcanonical averages used to describe the thermodynamic behaviour and to use the Broad Histogram method were obtained using the single spin-flip Wang-Landau sampling, attempting to convergence issues and accuracy improvements. We compare the results provided by both techniques with the exact ones for thermodynamic properties and critical exponents. Our results, within the Wang-Landau sa…
The density of states of continuous models is known to span many orders of magnitudes at different energies due to the small volume of phase space near the ground state. Consequently, the traditional Wang-Landau sampling which uses the same trial move for all energies faces difficulties sampling the low entropic states. We developed an adaptive variant of the Wang-Landau algorithm that very effectively samples the density of states of continuous models across the entire energy range. By extending the acceptance ratio method of Bouzida, Kumar, and Swendsen such that the step size of the trial m…
We investigate the behavior of the deviation of the estimator for the density of states (DOS) with respect to the exact solution in the course of Wang-Landau and Stochastic Approximation Monte Carlo (SAMC) simulations of the two-dimensional Ising model. We find that the deviation saturates in the Wang-Landau case. This can be cured by adjusting the refinement scheme. To this end, the 1/t-modification of the Wang-Landau algorithm has been suggested. A similar choice of refinement scheme is employed in the SAMC algorithm. The convergence behavior of all three algorithms is examined. It turns out…
We propose a method based on the Wang-Landau algorithm to numerically generate the spectral densities of random matrix ensembles. The method employs Dyson's log-gas formalism for random matrix eigenvalues and also enables one to simultaneously investigate the thermodynamic properties. This approach is a powerful alternative to the conventionally used Monte Carlo simulations based on the Boltzmann sampling, and is ideally suited for investigating beta-ensembles.
Paying attention to the difference of density of states, Δln g(E) = ln g(E+ΔE) - ln g(E), we study the convergence of the Wang-Landau method. We show that this quantity is a good estimator to discuss the errors of convergence, and refer to the $1/t$ algorithm. We also examine the behavior of the 1st-order transition with this difference of density of states in connection with Maxwell's equal area rule. A general procedure to judge the order of transition is given.
The Wang-Landau (WL) algorithm has been widely used for simulations in many areas of physics. Our analysis of the WL algorithm explains its properties and shows that the difference of the largest eigenvalue of the transition matrix in the energy space from unity can be used to control the accuracy of estimating the density of states. Analytic expressions for the matrix elements are given in the case of the one-dimensional Ising model. The proposed method is further confirmed by numerical results for the one-dimensional and two-dimensional Ising models and also the two-dimensional Potts model.
A simple modification of the ``Wang-Landau sampling'' algorithm removes the systematic error that occurs at the boundary of the range of energy over which the random walk takes place in the original algorithm.
We consider a class of systems where $N$ identical particles with positions ${\bf q}_1,...,{\bf q}_N$ and momenta ${\bf p}_1,...,{\bf p}_N$ are enclosed in a box of size $L$, and exhibit the scaling $\mathcal{U}(L{\bf r}_1,...,L{\bf r}_N)=α(L)\, \mathcal{U}({\bf r}_1,...,{\bf r}_N)$ for the associated potential energy function $\mathcal{U}({\bf q}_1,...,{\bf q}_N)$. For these systems, we propose an efficient implementation of the Wang-Landau algorithm for evaluating thermodynamic observables involving energy and volume fluctuations in the microcanonical description, and temperature and volume …
A generalized approach to Wang-Landau simulations, macroscopically constrained Wang-Landau, is proposed to simulate the density of states of a system with multiple macroscopic order parameters. The method breaks a multidimensional random-walk process in phase space into many separate, one-dimensional random-walk processes in well-defined subspaces. Each of these random walks is constrained to a different set of values of the macroscopic order parameters. When the multi-variable density of states is obtained for one set of values of field-like model parameters, the density of states for any oth…
We show that a histogram maintained throughout the Wang-Landau (WL) sampling for the energy entries visited during the simulation could be used to make the simulated density of states (DOS) converge. The method is easy to be implemented to the WL sampling with no extra computational cost and bears the advantages of both the WL method and the multicanonical method.
Monte Carlo simulation using the Wang-Landau algorithm has been performed in an one-dimensional Lebwohl-Lasher model. Both one-dimensional and two-dimensional random walks have been carried out. The results are compared with the exact results which are available for this model.
Monte Carlo simulation has been performed in one-dimensional Lebwohl-Lasher model and two dimensional XY-model using the Wang-Landau and the Wang-Landau-Transition-Matrix Monte Carlo methods. Random walk has been performed in the two-dimensional space comprising of energy-order parameter and energy-correlation function and the joint density of states (JDOS) were obtained. From the JDOS the order parameter, susceptibility and correlation function are calculated. Agreement between the results obtained from the two algorithms is very good.
Critical properties of lattice gases with nearest-neighbor exclusion are investigated via the adaptive-window Wang-Landau algorithm on the square and simple cubic lattices, for which the model is known to exhibit an Ising-like phase transition. We study the particle density, order parameter, compressibility, Binder cumulant and susceptibility. Our results show that it is possible to estimate critical exponents using Wang-Landau sampling with adaptive windows. Finite-size-scaling analysis leads to results in fair agreement with exact values (in two dimensions) and numerical estimates (in three …
We present a study on the performance of Wang-Landau algorithm in a lattice model of liquid crystals which is a continuous lattice spin model. We propose a novel method of the spin update scheme in a continuous lattice spin model. The proposed scheme reduces the autocorrelation time of the simulation and results in faster convergence.
Performance of Wang-Landau (W-L) algorithm in two continuous spin models is tested by determining the fluctuations in energy histogram. Finite size scaling is performed on a modified XY-model using different W-L sampling schemes. Difficulties faced in simulating relatively large continuous systems using W-L algorithm are discussed.
We present a mathematical analysis of the Wang-Landau algorithm, prove its convergence, identify sources of errors and strategies for optimization. In particular, we found the histogram increases uniformly with small fluctuation after a stage of initial accumulation, and the statistical error is found to scale as $\sqrt{\ln f}$ with the modification factor $f$. This has implications for strategies for obtaining fast convergence.
Recently, Wang and Landau proposed a new random walk algorithm that can be very efficiently applied to many problems. Subsequently, there has been numerous studies on the algorithm itself and many proposals for improvements were put forward. However, fundamental questions such as what determines the rate of convergence has not been answered. To understand the mechanism behind the Wang-Landau method, we did an error analysis and found that a steady state is reached where the fluctuations in the accumulated energy histogram saturate at values proportional to $[\log(f)]^{-1/2}$. This value is clo…
We review recent advances in the analysis of the Wang--Landau algorithm, which is designed for the direct Monte Carlo estimation of the density of states (DOS). In the case of a discrete energy spectrum, we present an approach based on introducing the transition matrix in the energy space (TMES). The TMES fully describes a random walk in the energy space biased with the Wang-Landau probability. Properties of the TMES can explain some features of the Wang-Landau algorithm, for example, the flatness of the histogram. We show that the Wang--Landau probability with the true DOS generates a Markov …
We propose a strategy to achieve the fastest convergence in the Wang-Landau algorithm with varying modification factors. With this strategy, the convergence of a simulation is at least as good as the conventional Monte Carlo algorithm, i.e. the statistical error vanishes as $1/\sqrt{t}$, where $t$ is a normalized time of the simulation. However, we also prove that the error cannot vanish faster than $1/t$. Our findings are consistent with the $1/t$ Wang-Landau algorithm discovered recently, and we argue that one needs external information in the simulation to beat the conventional Monte Carlo …
We show direct formal relationship between the Wang-Landau iteration [PRL 86, 2050 (2001)], metadynamics [PNAS 99, 12562 (2002)] and statistical temperature molecular dynamics [PRL 97, 050601 (2006)], the major Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics work-horses for sampling from a generalized, multicanonical ensemble. We demonstrate that statistical temperature molecular dynamics (which is formally derived from the Wang-Landau method), augmented by the introduction of kernel updates of the statistical temperature, generates dynamics which are indistinguishable from a corresponding metadynamics sim…
We present preliminary results of the investigation of the properties of the Markov random walk in the energy space generated by the Wang-Landau probability. We build transition matrix in the energy space (TMES) using the exact density of states for one-dimensional and two-dimensional Ising models. The spectral gap of TMES is inversely proportional to the mixing time of the Markov chain. We estimate numerically the dependence of the mixing time on the lattice size, and extract the mixing exponent.
We study the mechanism behind dynamical trappings experienced during Wang-Landau sampling of continuous systems reported by several authors. Trapping is caused by the random walker coming close to a local energy extremum, although the mechanism is different from that of critical slowing down encountered in conventional molecular dynamics or Monte Carlo simulations. When trapped, the random walker misses entire or even several stages of Wang-Landau modification factor reduction, leading to inadequate sampling of configuration space and a rough density-of-states even though the modification fact…
We report on numerical simulations of the two-dimensional Blume-Capel ferromagnet embedded in the triangular lattice. The model is studied in both its first- and second-order phase transition regime for several values of the crystal field via a sophisticated two-stage numerical strategy using the Wang-Landau algorithm. Using classical finite-size scaling techniques we estimate with high accuracy phase-transition temperatures, thermal, and magnetic critical exponents and we give an approximation of the phase diagram of the model.
Using Wang-landau algorithm combined with analytic method, the density of states of two dimensional XY model on square lattices of sizes $16\times16$, $24\times24$ and $32\times32$ is accurately calculated. Thermodynamic quantities, such as internal energy, free energy, entropy and specific heat are obtained from the resulted density of states by numerical integration. From the entropy curve symptoms of phase transition is observed. A general method of calculation of the density of states of continuous models by simulation combined with analytical method is proposed.
We revisit the nature of the quasi-one-dimensional Ising model on the basis of Wang-Landau simulation. We introduce the density of states in the two-dimensional energy space corresponding to the intra- and inter-chain directions. We then analyze the interchain coupling dependence of the specific heat of the anistropic two-dimensional Ising model in the context of the density of states, and further discuss the size dependences of the peak temperature. We also discuss the feature of the phase transition in the three-dimensional case.
The Wang-Landau method is used to study the magnetic properties of the giant paramagnetic molecule Mo_72Fe_30 in which 30 Fe3+ ions are coupled via antiferromagnetic exchange. The two-dimensional density of states g(E,M) in energy and magnetization space is calculated using a self-adaptive version of the Wang-Landau method. From g(E,M) the magnetization and magnetic susceptibility can be calculated for any temperature and external field.
We apply the Wang-Landau method to the study of the critical behaviour of the three dimensional Random Field Ising Model with a bimodal probability distribution. Our results show that for high values of the random field intensity the transition is first order, characterized by a double-peaked energy probability distribution at the transition temperature. On the other hand, the transition looks continuous for low values of the field intensity. In spite of the large sample to sample fluctuations observed, the double peak in the probability distribution is always present for high fields
We present modified Wang-Landau algorithm for models with continuous degrees of freedom. We demonstrate this algorithm with the calculation of the joint density of states $g(M,E)$ of ferromagnet Heisenberg models. The joint density of states contains more information than the density of states of a single variable--energy, but is also much more time-consuming to calculate. We discuss the strategies to perform this calculation efficiently for models with several thousand degrees of freedom, much larger than other continuous models studied previously with the Wang-Landau algorithm.
In this work we investigate the behavior of the microcanonical and canonical averages of the two-dimensional Ising model during the Wang-Landau simulation. The simulations were carried out using conventional Wang-Landau sampling and the $1/t$ scheme. Our findings reveal that the microcanonical average should not be accumulated during the initial modification factors \textit{f} and outline a criterion to define this limit. We show that updating the density of states only after every $L^2$ spin-flip trials leads to a much better precision. We present a mechanism to determine for the given model …
We estimated the residual entropy of ice Ih by the recently developed simulation protocol, namely, the combination of Replica-Exchange Wang-Landau algorithm and Multicanonical Replica-Exchange Method. We employed a model with the nearest neighbor interactions on the three-dimensional hexagonal lattice, which satisfied the ice rules in the ground state. The results showed that our estimate of the residual entropy is found to be within 0.038 % of series expansion estimate by Nagle and within 0.000077 % of PEPS algorithm by Vanderstraeten. In this article, we not only give our latest estimate of …
For a second-order phase transition the critical energy range of interest is larger than the energy range covered by a canonical Monte Carlo simulation at the critical temperature. Such an extended energy range can be covered by performing a Wang-Landau recursion for the spectral density followed by a multicanonical simulation with fixed weights. But in the conventional approach one loses the advantage due to cluster algorithms. A cluster version of the Wang-Landau recursion together with a subsequent multibondic simulation improves for 2D and 3D Ising models the efficiency of the conventional…
Hwang in [Phys. Rev. E 80, 042103 (2009)] suggested that the two transitions of the six-state clock model on the square lattice are not of the Kosterlitz-Thouless type. Here we show from simulations thatat the upper transition, the helicity modulus does make a discontinuous jump to zero. This gives strong evidence for a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition.
Metropolis algorithm has been extensively employed for simulating a canonical ensemble and estimating macroscopic properties of a closed system at any desired temperature. A mechanical property, like energy can be calculated by averaging over a large number of micro states of the stationary Markov chain generated by the Metropolis algorithm. However thermal properties like entropy, and free energies are not easily accessible. A method called umbrella sampling was proposed some forty years ago for this purpose. Ever since, umbrella sampling has undergone several metamorphoses and we have now mu…
We present a method for estimating the density of states of a classical statistical model. The algorithm successfully combines the Wang-Landau flat histogram method with the N-fold way in order to improve efficiency of the original single spin flip version. We test our implementation of the Wang-Landau method with the two-dimensional nearest neighbor Ising model for which we determine the tunneling time and the density of states. Furthermore, we show that our new algorithm performs correctly at right edges of an energy interval over which the density of states is computed. This removes a disad…
A simple solid-on-solid model of adsorbate-induced faceting is studied by using a modified Wang-Landau method. The phase diagram for this system is constructed by computing the density of states in a special two-dimensional energy space. A finite--size scaling analysis of transition temperature and specific heat shows that faceting transition is the first order phase transition. Logarithmic dependence of the mean-square width of the surface on system size indicates that surface is rough above the transition temperature.
Monte Carlo simulations using Wang-Landau sampling are performed to study three-dimensional chains of homopolymers on a lattice. We confirm the accuracy of the method by calculating the thermodynamic properties of this system. Our results are in good agreement with those obtained using Metropolis importance sampling. This algorithm enables one to accurately simulate the usually hardly accessible low-temperature regions since it determines the density of states in a single simulation.
We propose a simple method to estimate the central charge of the conformal field theory corresponding to a critical point of a two-dimensional lattice model from Monte Carlo simulations. The main idea is to use the Wang-Landau flat-histogram algorithm, which allows us to obtain the free energy of a lattice model on a torus as a function of torus radii. The central charge is calculated with a good precision from a free energy scaling at the critical point. We apply the method to the Ising, tricritical Ising (Blume-Capel), Potts and site-diluted Ising models, and also discuss estimation of confo…
Wang and Landau proposed recently, a simple and flexible non-Boltzmann Monte Carlo method for estimating the density of states, from which the macroscopic properties of a closed system can be calculated. They demonstrated their algorithm by cocontinuous energy spectrum. We propose in this paper modifications nsidering systems with discrete energy spectrum. We find that the Wang-Landau algorithm does not perform well when the system has continuous energy spectrum. We propose in this paper modifications to the algorithm and demonstrate their performance on a lattice model of liquid crystalline s…
In this work we present a theoretical analysis of the convergence of the Wang-Landau algorithm [Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 2050 (2001)] which was introduced years ago to calculate the density of states in statistical models. We study the dynamical behavior of the error in the calculation of the density of states.We conclude that the source of the saturation of the error is due to the decreasing variations of the refinement parameter. To overcome this limitation, we present an analytical treatment in which the refinement parameter is scaled down as a power law instead of exponentially. An extension o…
Monte Carlo simulation using a combination of Wang Landau (WL) and Transition Matrix (TM) Monte Carlo algorithms to simulate two lattice spin models with continuous energy is described. One of the models, the one dimensional Lebwohl-Lasher model has an exact solution and we have used this to test the performance of the mixed algorithm (WLTM). The other system we have worked on is the two dimensional XY-model. The purpose of the present work is to test the performance of the WLTM algorithm in continuous models and to suggest methods for obtaining best results in such systems using this algorith…
In this communication, the convergence of the 1/t and Wang - Landau algorithms in the calculation of multidimensional numerical integrals is analyzed. Both simulation methods are applied to a wide variety of integrals without restrictions in one, two and higher dimensions. The errors between the exact and the calculated values of the integral are obtained and the efficiency and accuracy of the methods are determined by their dynamical behavior. The comparison between both methods and the simple sampling Monte Carlo method is also reported. It is observed that the time dependence of the errors …
It is shown in this work how the Wang-Landau algorithm can be parallelized through the concept of the micromagnetic ensemble, when the Hamiltonian contains both spin interaction and the external field terms, and thus energy-magnetization plane is used for characterizing the density of states. Within this framework random walk is performed on mutually independent micromagnetic lines, and can thus be paralellized on a computer grid, without need for shared memory among individual processes. This approach pushes forward significantly the size of the systems that may be addressed on current comput…
We describe a class of "bare bones" models of homopolymers which undergo coil-globule collapse and proteins which fold into their native states in free space or into denatured states when captured by an attractive substrate as the temperature is lowered. We then show how, with the use of a properly chosen trial move set, Wang-Landau Monte Carlo sampling can be used to study the rough free energy landscape and ground (native) states of these intriguingly simple systems and thus elucidate their thermodynamic complexity.
The multiple range random walk algorithm recently proposed by Wang and Landau [Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 2050 (2001)] is adapted to the computation of free energy profiles for molecular systems along reaction coordinates. More generally, we show how to extract partial averages in various statistical ensembles without invoking simulations with constraints, biasing potentials or unknown parameters. The method is illustrated on a model 10-dimensional potential energy surface, for which analytical results are obtained. It is then applied to the potential of mean force associated with the dihedral angle…
We introduce a rejection-free, flat histogram, cluster algorithm to determine the density of states of hard-core lattice gases. We show that the algorithm is able to efficiently sample low entropy states that are usually difficult to access, even when the excluded volume per particle is large. The algorithm is based on simultaneously evaporating all the particles in a strip and reoccupying these sites with a new appropriately chosen configuration. We implement the algorithm for the particular case of the hard-core lattice gas in which the first k next-nearest neighbors of a particle are exclud…
By combining two generalized-ensemble algorithms, Replica-Exchange Wang-Landau (REWL) method and Multicanonical Replica-Exchange Method (MUCAREM), we propose an effective simulation protocol to determine the density of states with high accuracy. The new protocol is referred to as REWL-MUCAREM, and REWL is first performed and then MUCAREM is performed next. In order to verify the effectiveness of our protocol, we performed simulations of a square-lattice Ising model by the three methods, namely, REWL, MUCAREM, and REWL-MUCAREM. The results showed that the density of states obtained by the REWL-…
When performing a Monte Carlo calculation, the running time should in principle be much longer than the autocorrelation time in order to get reliable results. Among different lattice fermion models, the Holstein model is notorious for its particularly long autocorrelation time. In this work, we employ the Wang-Landau algorithm in the determinant quantum Monte Carlo to achieve the flat-histogram sampling in the "configuration weight space", which can greatly reduce the autocorrelation time by sacrificing some sampling efficiency. The proposal is checked in the Holstein model on both square and …
In this work we apply Wang-Landau simulations to a simple model which has exact solutions both in the microcanonical and canonical formalisms. The simulations were carried out by using an updated version of the Wang-Landau sampling. We consider a homopolymer chain consisting of $N$ monomers units which may assume any configuration on the two-dimensional lattice. By imposing constraints to the moves of the polymers we obtain three different models. Our results show that updating the density of states only after every $N$ monomers moves leads to a better precision. We obtain the specific heat an…
We present a generalization of the classical Wang-Landau algorithm [Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 2050 (2001)] to quantum systems. The algorithm proceeds by stochastically evaluating the coefficients of a high temperature series expansion or a finite temperature perturbation expansion to arbitrary order. Similar to their classical counterpart, the algorithms are efficient at thermal and quantum phase transitions, greatly reducing the tunneling problem at first order phase transitions, and allow the direct calculation of the free energy and entropy.
Wang-Landau sampling (WLS) of large systems requires dividing the energy range into "windows" and joining the results of simulations in each window. The resulting density of states (and associated thermodynamic functions) are shown to suffer from boundary effects in simulations of lattice polymers and the five-state Potts model. Here, we implement WLS using adaptive windows. Instead of defining fixed energy windows (or windows in the energy-magnetization plane for the Potts model), the boundary positions depend on the set of energy values on which the histogram is flat at a given stage of the …
We investigate the tricritical scaling behavior of the two-dimensional spin-$1$ Blume-Capel model using the Wang-Landau method measuring the joint density of states for lattice sizes up to $48\times 48$ sites. The first-order transition curve is systematically determined employing the method of field mixing in conjunction with finite-size scaling, showing a significant deviation from the previous data points. Deep in the first-order area of the phase diagram, we also find that the specific heat exhibits a double-peak structure of the Schottky-like anomaly appearing with the transition peak. At…
We determine the optimal scaling of local-update flat-histogram methods with system size by using a perfect flat-histogram scheme based on the exact density of states of 2D Ising models.The typical tunneling time needed to sample the entire bandwidth does not scale with the number of spins N as the minimal N^2 of an unbiased random walk in energy space. While the scaling is power law for the ferromagnetic and fully frustrated Ising model, for the +/- J nearest-neighbor spin glass the distribution of tunneling times is governed by a fat-tailed Frechet extremal value distribution that obeys expo…
The effect of opposite sign of interactions in a single-walled Ising nanotube is investigated using the Wang-Landau algorithm. The thermodynamic observables are calculated from the estimated density of states (DOS) with and without the presence of an external magnetic field. Irrespective of the applied magnetic field, a symmetric trend of DOS is observed for opposite sign of interactions which is in contrast to the asymmetric trend for same sign of interactions. Further, two types of anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) orderings, namely A-type and C-type anti-ferromagnetic order, are observed for opposit…
We propose a method for Monte Carlo simulation of statistical physical models with discretized energy. The method is based on several ideas including the cluster algorithm, the multicanonical Monte Carlo method and its acceleration proposed recently by Wang and Landau. As in the multibondic ensemble method proposed by Janke and Kappler, the present algorithm performs a random walk in the space of the bond population to yield the state density as a function of the bond number. A test on the Ising model shows that the number of Monte Carlo sweeps required of the present method for obtaining the …
We present here an extension of the Wang-Landau Monte Carlo method which allows us to get very accurate estimates of the full probability distributions of several observables after a quantum quench for large systems, whenever the relevant matrix elements are calculable, but the full exponential complexity of the Hilbert space would make an exhaustive enumeration impossible beyond very limited sizes. We apply this method to quenches of free-fermion models with disorder, further corroborating the fact that a generalized Gibbs ensemble fails to capture the long-time average of many-body operators…
In this work we propose a criterion to finish the simulations of the Wang-Landau sampling. Instead of determining a final modification factor for all simulations and every sample sizes, we investigate the behavior of the temperature of the peak of the specific heat during the simulations and finish them when this value varies bellow a given limit. As a result, different runs stop at different final modification factors. We show that in place of the temperature of the peak of the specific heat one can adopt alternatively the integrated heat transfer as a reference quantity. We apply this techni…
Coupled, dynamical spin-lattice models provide a unique test ground for simulations investigating the finite-temperature magnetic properties of materials under the direct influence of the lattice vibrations. These models are constructed by combining a coordinate-dependent interatomic potential with a Heisenberg-like spin Hamiltonian, facilitating the treatment of both the atomic coordinates and spins as explicit phase variables. Using a model parameterized for bcc iron, we study the magnetic phase transition in these complex systems via the recently introduced, massively parallel replica-excha…
We apply a newly proposed Monte Carlo method, the Wang-Landau algorithm, to the study of the three-dimensional antiferromagnetic q-state Potts models on a simple cubic lattice. We systematically study the phase transition of the models with q=3, 4, 5 and 6. We obtain the finite-temperature phase transition for q= 3 and 4, whereas the transition temperature is down to zero for q=5. For q=6 there exists no order for all the temperatures. We also study the ground-state properties. The size-dependence of the ground-state entropy is investigated. We find that the ground-state entropy is larger than…
Wang-Landau sampling has been applied to investigate the thermodynamics and structural properties of a lattice hydrophobic-polar heteropolymer (the HP protein model) interacting with an attractive substrate. For simplicity, we consider a short HP sequence consisting of only 36 monomers interacting with a substrate which attracts all monomers in the sequence. The conformational "phase transitions" have been identified by a canonical analysis of the specific heat and suitable structural observables. Three major "transitions", namely, adsorption, hydrophobic core formation and "flattening" of ads…