Nonequilibrium antiferromagnetic mixed-spin Ising model

We studied an antiferromagnetic mixed-spin Ising model on the square lattice subject to two competing stochastic processes. The model system consists of two interpenetrating sublattices of spins sigma = 1/2 and S = 1, and we take only nearest neighbor interactions between pairs of spins. The system is in contact with a heat bath at temperature T, and the exchange of energy with the heat bath occurs via one-spin flip (Glauber dynamics). Besides, the system interacts with an external agency of energy, which supplies energy to it whenever two nearest neighboring spins are simultaneously flipped. By employing Monte Carlo simulations and a dynamical pair approximation, we found the phase diagram for the stationary states of the model in the plane temperature T versus the competition parameter between one- and two-spin flips p. We observed the appearance of three distinct phases, that are separated by continuous transition lines. We also determined the static critical exponents along these lines and we showed that this nonequilibrium model belongs to the universality class of the two-dimensional equilibrium Ising model.