We propose a method to incorporate pair correlations of an Ising lattice system in molecular field theory to higher orders. The theory is applied to ferromagnetism, where a system of equations is obtained for the response function (here the susceptibility). We obtain important corrections on the Weiss model and the spherical model. This is illustrated by an explicit calculation of the critical temperature and the spurious phase, appearing for
T>Tc, near the critical point in the case of a simple cubic lattice.
The mean-field approximation of the critical behavior of the antiferromagnetic Ising model in a magnetic field shows that the critical field increases first at low temperature. However, the exact solution of a decorated square lattice proves that the critical field rapidly decreases with increasing temperature for the two-dimensional lattice. Three-dimensional lattices of this model have been studied as well using the high temperature expansion, low temperature expansion, and Monte Carlo simulation. The results are different. In this article we have investigated the critical field of the body centered cubic lattice of this model using the linked-cluster expansion technique. An eighth-order perturbation series for the free energy has been calculated. The magnetization and staggered magnetic susceptibility series have been calculated from the free energy. These series have been analyzed using Padé approximants to obtain the phase diagram in the field-temperature plane. A comparison is made with Monte Carlo simulation calculations.
The partition function of the Ising model of ferromagnetism is examined in the limit of high density in the anticipation that in the limit of infinite density one recovers the Weiss molecular field. The formal parameter of expansion is
z1 where
z is the number of spins in the range of the exchange potential (not restricted to nearest neighbor interactions). In the absence of long-range order, only ring diagrams in the cluster expansion contribute. These give a divergence in the specific heat at $k{T}_{c}=\ensuremath{\Sigma}{j\ensuremath{\ne}i}^{}{v}_{\mathrm{ij}}$ where
vij is the exchange potential. This is the molecular field value for the Curie point
Tc. In the presence of a magnetic field the partition function is evaluated for fixed magnetic moment
M in the same approximation,
M being determined by minimization. This results in a susceptibility differing from the molecular field theory and hence an inconsistency in the theory.The inconsistency is traced back to the observation that the acceptance of ring diagrams is equivalent to the gaussian model of Kac and Berlin which violates the sum rule ${{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{i=1}}^{N}{{\ensuremath{\mu}}_{i}}^{2}=N$. Here ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{i}$ is the "spin" per particle and
N is the total number of particles. This condition is reinstated by insuring the sum rule. The result leads to the spherical model. Thus, a consistent high density approximation to the Ising model is the spherical model. Below the Curie point or for fixed magnetic field,
M is again held fixed and only the Fourier components of the spin density with nonvanishing wave vector are "sphericalized." The result leads to a physically acceptable model which becomes the molecular field theory at low temperatures or high fields and deviates in
O(z1) in general. Formally, the results are simply expressed in terms of a temperature dependent Weiss field. These results differ from the ordinary spherical model which is physically unacceptable below the Curie point. However, a molecular field modification of the spherical model due to M. Lax yields the same result when properly interpreted.It is shown that the above results are also valid (to the same approximation) in the quantum mechanical Heisenberg model, for temperatures above the Curie point.
The correlation length of the Ising model on the simple cubic lattice is calculated directly from the magnetization profiles which are determined in the pair, the square, and the cube approximations in the simplified cluster variation method. The critical exponent ν is obtained by applying the coherent anomaly method to the correlation length. The wave-number dependent magnetic susceptibility or the spin-pair correlation function is not required in obtaining the expression for the correlation length.
A cluster mean-field method is introduced and the applications to the Ising and Heisenberg models are demonstrated. We divide the lattice sites into clusters whose size and shape are selected so that the equivalence of all sites in a cluster is preserved. Since the strength of interactions of a cluster with its surrounding clusters is strongly dependent on the spin configuration of the central cluster itself, we include this contribution in the effective fields acting on the spins. The effects of ``correlations'' between clusters can be taken into account beyond the standard mean-field level and as a result our cluster-based method gives qualitatively (and even quantitatively) correct results for the both Ising and Heisenberg models. Especially, for the Ising model on the honeycomb and square lattices, the calculated results of the critical temperature are very close (overestimated by only less than 5%) to the exact values.