Effect of space discretization on phase diagrams in ionic systems: a field-theoretic approach

Using Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson field-theoretic methods we determine for what kind of space discretization the transition between charge-disordered and charge-ordered phases in the restricted primitive model is fluctuation-induced first order. We identify this transition with ionic-crystal formation. We predict four types of generic phase diagrams in ionic systems for various kinds of space discretization for low and intermediate densities of ions. Our results also shed light on the simulation results obtained for an off-lattice ionic system over a wide range of densities, including the fcc crystal.