Asymptotic states of Ising ferromagnets with long-range interactions

It is known that, after a quench to zero temperature (T = 0), two-dimensional (d = 2) Ising ferromagnets with short-range interactions do not always relax to the ordered state. They can also fall in infinitely long-lived striped metastable states with a finite probability. In this paper, we study how the abundance of striped states is affected by long-range interactions. We investigate the relaxation of d = 2 Ising ferromagnets with power-law interactions by means of Monte Carlo simulations at both T = 0 and T not equal 0. For T = 0 and the finite system size, the striped metastable states are suppressed by long-range interactions. In the thermodynamic limit, their occurrence probabilities are consistent with the short-range case. For T not equal 0, the final state is always ordered. Further, the equilibration occurs at earlier times with an increase in the strength of the interactions.