Monte Carlo study of a three-dimensional Ising lattice with frustration

Monte Carlo simulations are made of a three-dimensional Ising crystal of which the ground-state degeneracy is 2N13/, N being the total number of spins. The computation is performed for a crystal size of 12*12*12 spins with periodic boundary conditions. Lowering the temperature slowly, the authors investigate the physical properties such as the spin glass order parameter, internal energy and correlation functions. Evidence of a magnetic phase transition is shown. The lowest-energy spin configuration predicted by the low-temperature expansion theory is found to be achieved even at high temperatures. The result from the theory is compared with the Monte Carlo result and an estimate of the energy barrier between stable states is proposed.