Ground states of the frustrated Blume-Emery-Griffiths model in a field

Ground-state properties of the Blume-Emery-Griffiths model with antiferromagnetic nearest-neighbor interactions on a triangular lattice are investigated in the presence of an external magnetic field. In particular, we explore the model's parameter space and identify regions with different degenerate ground states that may give rise to different magnetic phases also at finite temperatures. We demonstrate the presence of such phases by Monte Carlo simulations of magnetization processes for selected values of parameters.