Three-dimensional antiferromagnetic q-state Potts models:: application of the Wang-Landau algorithm

We apply a newly proposed Monte Carlo method, the Wang-Landau algorithm, to the study of the three-dimensional antiferromagnetic q-state Potts models on a simple cubic lattice. We systematically study the phase transition of the models with q = 3, 4, 5 and 6. We obtain the finite-temperature phase transition for q = 3 and 4, whereas the transition temperature is down to zero for q = 5. For q = 6 there exists no order for any temperature. We also study the ground-state properties. The size dependence of the ground-state entropy is investigated. We find that the ground-state entropy is larger than the contribution from the typical configurations of the broken-sublattice-symmetry state for q = 3. The same situations are found for q = 4, 5 and 6.