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Bayesian finite-size scaling analysis

Kenji Harada

Published Feb 21, 2011• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

To determine the universality class of critical phenomena, we propose a method of statistical inference in the scaling analysis of critical phenomena. The method is based on Bayesian statistics, most specifically, the Gaussian process regression. It assumes only the smoothness of a scaling function, and it does not need a form. We demonstrate this method for the finite-size scaling analysis of the Ising models on square and triangular lattices. Near the critical point, the method is comparable in accuracy to the least-square method. In addition, it works well for data to which we cannot apply the least-square method with a polynomial of low degree. By comparing the data on triangular lattices with the scaling function inferred from the data on square lattices, we confirm the universality of the finite-size scaling function of the two-dimensional Ising model.

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To determine the universality class of critical phenomena, we propose a method of statistical inference in the scaling analysis of critical phenomena. The method is based on Bayesian statistics, most specifically, the Gaussian process regression. It assumes only the smoothness of a scaling function, and it does not need a form. We demonstrate this method for the finite-size scaling analysis of the Ising models on square and triangular lattices. Near the critical point, the method is comparable in accuracy to the least-square method. In addition, it works well for data to which we cannot apply the least-square method with a polynomial of low degree. By comparing the data on triangular lattices with the scaling function inferred from the data on square lattices, we confirm the universality of the finite-size scaling function of the two-dimensional Ising model.
To determine the universality class of critical phenomena, we propose a method of statistical inference in the scaling analysis of critical phenomena. The method is based on Bayesian statistics, most specifically, the Gaussian process regression. It assumes only the smoothness of a scaling function, and it does not need a form. We demonstrate this method for the finite-size scaling analysis of the Ising models on square and triangular lattices. Near the critical point, the method is comparable in accuracy to the least-square method. In addition, it works well for data to which we cannot apply the least-square method with a polynomial of low degree. By comparing the data on triangular lattices with the scaling function inferred from the data on square lattices, we confirm the universality of the finite-size scaling function of the two-dimensional Ising model.
Determining the universality class of a system exhibiting critical phenomena is one of the central problems in physics. There are several methods to determine this universality class from data. As methods to collapse plots onto scaling functions, polynomial regression, which is less accurate, and Gaussian process regression, which provides high accuracy and flexibility but is computationally expensive, have been proposed. In this paper, we propose a regression method using a neural network. The computational complexity is linear only in the number of data points. We demonstrate the proposed method for the finite-size scaling analysis of critical phenomena in the two-dimensional Ising model and bond percolation problem to confirm the performance. This method efficiently obtains the critical values with accuracy in both cases.
In this paper we study finite-size scaling at criticality in the Gibbs ensemble with Monte Carlo simulations. A recent lattice-gas version of Gibbs-ensemble sampling for the two-dimensional Ising-model magnet with nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic interactions on two subsystems of L\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}L lattices is considered. Both square and triangular lattices with a range of lattice sizes are simulated at bulk criticality. We are interested in the question of universality for the fourth-order cumulant of the order-parameter distribution in the Gibbs ensemble. Estimates of -1.954\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.005 and -1.9543\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.005 are obtained for the square and triangular lattices, respectively. These values confirm universality within the Gibbs ensemble, but are statistically different from the canonical-ensemble values of \ensuremath{\sim}-1.83. We point out that one must interpret this apparent ensemble dependence with care. Unlike in the canonical ensemble, the order parameter in the Gibbs ensemble is the subsystem magnetization. Its fourth-order cumulant is not simply related to the usual fourth magnetic-field derivative of the total free energy. Standard finite-size scaling analysis of data for the total specific heat, subsystem magnetization, and susceptibility are also considered and found to be in good agreement with finite-size scaling.
We use heat bath dynamics to evaluate the dynamic critical exponent zzz and the dynamic finite-size scaling function of an Ising model on square, planar triangular, and honeycomb lattices. We find convincing evidence that zzz is universal and, by choosing an aspect ratio and a nonuniversal metric factor for the scaled time of each lattice, we can obtain a universal dynamic finite-size scaling function for the Ising model on the planar lattices. Our results suggest many interesting problems for further research.
We present a method which allows calculation of whole universal finite-size-scaling functions from Monte Carlo data. The crux of the new method is a technique of isolating the singular part from the total free energy. We apply this method to the 3-state Potts model on a square lattice and find the normalized scaling function Y(x) in the form 1+x+5.31x2{\mathit{x}}^{2}x2-1.2x3{\mathit{x}}^{3}x3-0.67x4{\mathit{x}}^{4}x4 . . . near the bulk critical point x=0, together with the normalizing universal amplitude E=1.053 and a nonuniversal metric factor D=-0.387. It also behaves as Y(x)\ensuremath{\approxeq}(\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}x${)}^{\mathit{d}\ensuremath{\nu}}$${\mathit{Q}}_{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$ for large x in agreement with the hyperuniversality hypothesis with Q+{\mathit{Q}}_{+}Q+​/${\mathit{Q}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$\ensuremath{\approxeq}1.
Scaling analysis, in which one infers scaling exponents and a scaling function in a scaling law from given data, is a powerful tool for determining universal properties of critical phenomena in many fields of science. However, there are corrections to scaling in many cases, and then the inference problem becomes ill-posed by an uncontrollable irrelevant scaling variable. We propose a new kernel method based on Gaussian process regression to fix this problem generally. We test the performance of the new kernel method for some example cases. In all cases, when the precision of the example data increases, inference results of the new kernel method correctly converge. Because there is no limitation in the new kernel method for the scaling function even with corrections to scaling, unlike in the conventional method, the new kernel method can be widely applied to real data in critical phenomena.