First-Order to Second-Order Phase Transition Changeover and Latent Heats of q-State Potts Models in d=2,3 from a Simple Migdal-Kadanoff Adaptation

Abstract: The changeover from first-order to second-order phase transitions in q-state Potts models is obtained at q_c=2 in spatial dimension d=3 and essentially at q_c=4 in d=2, using a physically intuited simple adaptation of the Migdal-Kadanoff renormalization-group transformation. This simple procedure yields the latent heats at the first-order phase transitions. In both d=2 and 3, the calculated phase transition temperatures, respectively compared with the exact self-duality and Monte Carlo results, are dramatically improved.