Thermal hysteresis scaling for first-order phase transitions

We study the effects of time-dependent thermal cycling on the first-order phase transition in cubic Ising systems with four-spin interactions by means of Monte Carlo simulations. The thermal hysteresis or the energy dissipation Q of a thermal cycle can be scaled with respect to the linear heating or cooling rate R: Q - Q0∝ Rb. We find the exponent b is independent of the interaction strength, b = 0.47 ± 0.05 in an SC lattice while in an FCC lattice and a compressible Ising lattice b = 0.71 ± 0.07, 0.70 ± 0.05 respectively. These simulation results are also compared with the kinetic Ising model and N-vector model in Langevin dynamics.