AbstractWe use exact recursion relations to study the magnetic properties of the half-integer mixed spin-5/2 and spin-3/2 Blume-Capel Ising ferromagnetic system on the two-fold Cayley tree that consists of two sublattices A and B. Two positive crystal-field interactions Δ1 and Δ2 are considered for the sublattice with spin-5/2 and spin-3/2 respectively. For different coordination numbers q of the Cayley tree sites, the phase diagrams of the model are presented with a special emphasis on the case q = 3, since other values of q reproduce similar results. First, the T = 0 phase diagram is illustrated in the (D A = Δ1/J,D B = Δ2/J) plane of reduced crystal-field interactions. This diagram shows triple points and coexistence lines between thermodynamically stable phases. Secondly, the thermal variation of the magnetization belonging to each sublattice for some coordination numbers q are investigated as well as the Helmoltz free energy of the system. First-order and second-order phase transitions are found. The second-order phase transitions become sharper and sharper when D A or D B increases. The first-order transitions only exist for some appropriate non-zero values of D A and/or D B. The corresponding transition lines never connect to the second-order transition lines. Thus, the non-existence of tricritical points remains one of the key features of the present model. The magnetic exponent β 0 of the model is estimated and found to be ¼ at small values of D A = D B = D and β 0 = ½ at large values of D. At intermediate values of D, there is a crossover region where the magnetic exponent displays interesting behaviours.
