The static properties are investigated by computer simulation for the square Ising ferromagnet in which the nearest-neighbor interactions are ferromagnetic and the second interactions antiferromagnetic. Energy and magnetization at various temperatures are obtained by Monte Carlo calculations performed on the lattice with 20×20 spins. The Curie point determined as the inflection point of the energy-vs-temperature curve agrees with the result by Fan and Wu rather than other analytical approximations. The behavior of the spontaneous magnetization M 0 ( T ) for T → T c -0 as characterized by the critical exponent β is shown by comparing the data with an analytical equation for the magnetization. The exponent β remains probably unchanged from the original value 1/8.
Paramagnetism could be explained by assuming that all spins are independent. To explain the phenomenon of permanent magnetization or ferromagnetism therefore, one must take into account the interaction between spins. In ferromagnets there must therefore be another force that tends to align the elementary magnets or spins. The mechanism for this alignment force was discovered by Heisenberg in 1928. It is quantum mechanical in origin and is called the exchange force. It is a subtle interplay between the Pauli principle and the Coulomb potential. The one-dimensional Ising model behaves therefore as a paramagnet! When Ising first derived this result, he conjectured that the higher-dimensional analogues would probably behave in the same way. The Ising model becomes equivalent to a contour model. The lines on the dual lattice separate into connected pieces which are either closed curves or curves which begin and end at the boundary of the lattice. These curves are called contours.