title: Damage-spreading simulations through exact relations for the two-dimensional Potts ferromagnet.
abstract: A powerful computational method for dealing with correlation functions in magnetic systems, based on damage-spreading simulations, is reviewed and tested, by investigating the q-state Potts ferromagnet, on a square lattice, at criticality. Exact relations involving special kinds of damage and the spin-spin correlation function, as well as the magnetization, are used. The efficiency of the method arises with a significant reduction of the finite-size effects, with respect to conventional Monte Carlo simulations. Correlation functions, which represent usually a hard task within this latter procedure, appear to be much more easily estimated through the present damage-spreading simulations. The effectiveness of the technique is illustrated by an accurate estimate of the exponent eta, of the spin-spin correlation function, for q=2, 3, and 4, with rather small lattice sizes. In the cases q > or = 5, an analysis of the magnetization is consistent with the well-known first-order phase transition.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física Teórica e Experimental, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Campus Universitário, Caixa Postal 1641, 59072-970 Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. asafilho@dfte.ufrn.br
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Anjos
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Moreira
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Mariz
authors.forename: F D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Nobre