Dynamical generation of a gauge symmetry in the double-exchange model

It is shown that a bosonic formulation of the double-exchange model, one of the classical models for magnetism, generates dynamically a gauge-invariant phase in a finite region of the phase diagram. We use analytical methods, Monte Carlo simulations and finite-size scaling analysis. We study the transition line between that region and the paramagnetic phase. The numerical results show that this transition line belongs to the universality class of the antiferromagnetic RP2 model. The fact that one can define a universality class for the antiferromagnetic RP2 model, different from the one of the O (N) models, is puzzling and somehow contradicts naive expectations about universality. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.