Thermodynamic properties of the spin S=3/2 quantum ferromagnetic Blume-Capel model in a transverse crystal field.

The thermodynamic properties of the spin S=3/2 ferromagnetic Ising model in the presence of transverse and longitudinal crystal fields (equivalent to the Blume-Capel model with a transverse crystal field) have been studied by using two different approaches: (i) a zero-temperature mapping of the system onto a spin-1/2 quantum Ising model in longitudinal and transverse fields, together with time-independent quantum perturbation theory; and (ii) a standard mean-field approximation within the framework of the Bogoliubov inequality for the free energy. A very rich phase diagram, with different kinds of multicritical behavior, has been obtained. The results show first- and second-order transition lines, tricritical and tetracritical points, critical end points with a two-phase coexistence, double critical end points, and also double noncritical end points. Additionally, the behavior of the magnetization as a function of temperature, over a wide range of values of both longitudinal and transverse crystal fields, has also been analyzed in detail. While large magnitudes of the longitudinal crystal field select the z-spin components either in their states ±3/2 or ±1/2, it is surprising that a large transverse crystal field induces the spin component in the z direction to values ±1, which are completely different from any expected natural component. This comes indeed as a result of the zero-temperature mapping of the ground state with the superposition of the states 3/2 and -1/2, in one sector of the Hilbert space, and the states -3/2 and 1/2 on the other disjoint sector of the Hilbert space. This superposition for a large transverse crystal field prevails even for finite temperatures, implying that the exact critical points are obtained for the model on the one-dimensional lattice and the two-dimensional square lattice, and quite accurate estimates can be achieved for the three-dimensional simple cubic lattice.