The nearest-neighbor-interaction spin-1 Ising model is investigated within the damage-spreading approach. Exact relations involving quantities computable through damage-spreading simulations and thermodynamic properties are derived for such a model, defined in terms of a very general Hamiltonian that covers several spin-1 models of interest in the literature. Such relations presuppose translational invariance and hold for any ergodic dynamical procedure, leading to an efficient tool for obtaining thermodynamic properties. The implementation of the method is illustrated through damage-spreading simulations for the ferromagnetic spin-1 Ising model on a square lattice. The two-spin correlation function and the magnetization are obtained, with precise estimates of their associated critical exponents and of the critical temperature of the model, in spite of the small lattice sizes considered. These results are in good agreement with the universality hypothesis, with critical exponents in the same universality class of the spin-$1∕2$ Ising model. The advantage of the present method is shown through a significant reduction of finite-size effects by comparing its results with those obtained from standard Monte Carlo simulations.

• Received 19 May 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.78.031105