Metastability in the diluted parallel Ising model

Abstract We present some considerations about the parallel implementations of the kinetic (Monte Carlo) version of the Ising model. In some cases, the equilibrium distribution of the parallel version does not present the symmetry breaking phenomenon in the low-temperature phase, i.e., the stochastic trajectory originated by the Monte Carlo simulation can jump between the distributions corresponding to both kinds of magnetization, or the lattice can break into two disjoint sublattices, each of which goes into a different asymptotic distribution (phase). In this latter case, by introducing a small asynchronism (dilution), we can have a transition between the homogeneous and the checkerboard phases, with metastable transients. Graphic Abstract