First-Order versus Unconventional Phase Transitions in Three-Dimensional Dimer Models

We study the phase transition between the Coulomb liquid and the columnar crystal in the 3D classical dimer model, which was found to be continuous in the O(3) universality class. In addition to nearest-neighbor interactions which favor parallel dimers, further neighbor interactions are allowed in such a manner that the cubic symmetry of the original system remains intact. We show that the transition in the presence of weak additional, symmetry preserving interactions is first order. However, the universality class of the transition remains continuous when the additional interactions are weakly repulsive. In this way, we verify the existence of a multicritical point near the unperturbed transition, and we identify a critical line of unconventional transitions between the Coulomb liquid phase and the sixfold columnar phase.