Ensemble-dependent effect of disorder on multicritical points in a system with long-range interactions

We introduce two variants of the Blume--Emery--Griffiths model with long-range, mean-field-like interactions and quenched disorder. Although the two variants are described by different Hamiltonians, they yield the same free energy. Moreover, both Hamiltonians lead to the same average energy and hence to the same microcanonical entropy. The canonical and microcanonical phase boundaries differ markedly, and so does the multicritical behaviour of the two ensembles. In the microcanonical ensemble, tricritical points appear for any fraction of active spins, whereas in the canonical ensemble they emerge only when this fraction is sufficiently large. At lower fractions, canonical critical endpoints arise instead. We also report the formation of gaps in the entropy as a function of magnetization, another manifestation of ensemble inequivalence.