The molecular-field-type approximations when applied to the Ising ferromagnet yield inaccurate and sometimes incorrect behaviors at the transition temperature. We have advanced the mathematical approximation of the cluster variation method, which is the generalization of the molecular-field-type approximation, a few more steps so that the four- and six-body correlations are taken into account. Some remarkable features became apparent from preliminary calculations for fcc Ising ferromagnets: (i) The transition temperature is predicted within a few percent of the exact value. ${T}_{c}(4\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{b}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{y})=0.83545$, ${T}_{c}(6\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{b}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{y})=0.83394$,
Tc(exact)=0.81627, with
Tc(Weiss)=1.00000; (ii) When closed-form equations for the low-temperature specific heat are expanded into infinite series, all of the known exact coefficients are reproduced; (iii) The extent of mathematical analysis and the amount of numerical computation are considerably less than those involved in diagram enumeration methods.
A new and simple diagrammatic expansion is developed for the free energy of the Ising model with arbitrary spin and range of interaction. The contribution of each diagram is a product of (1) the reciprocal of the order of the symmetry group of the diagram, (2) a product of semi-invariants, with a factor
Mn for each spin in the diagram
n being the number of bonds joined to that spin) and (3) a sum of products $\ensuremath{\Sigma}{i,j,k,\ensuremath{\cdots}}^{}(2\ensuremath{\beta}{J}_{\mathrm{ij}})(2\ensuremath{\beta}{J}_{\mathrm{kl}})\ensuremath{\cdots}$, where $2\ensuremath{\beta}{J}_{\mathrm{ij}}$ corresponds to a bond between spins
i and
j, and where the summation is carried out with no restrictions on the summation indices (i.e., no "excluded volume" corrections). The expansion variables are the spin deviation operators ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{i}\ensuremath{\equiv}\overline{S}\ensuremath{-}{S}_{\mathrm{iz}}$. The quantity
S is chosen to eliminate a large class of diagrams; this choice also minimizes the corresponding free-energy contribution and implies
S=〈Siz〉. By further renormalization of the vertices all reducible (i.e., simply articulated) diagrams are eliminated. To zero order the molecular field solution is obtained. The next approximation consists of the summation of renormalized simple loop diagrams. The justification of this choice of diagrams rests, at low temperature, on the decrease of the value of the higher order semi-invariants, on the relationship of these loop diagrams to the random phase approximation, and on the agreement with the rigorous low-temperature series result. At the Curie temperature the same choice of diagrams is justified by a modification of Brout's
z1 criterion, so that the expansion can be viewed as an expansion in
z1, where
z is the effective number of spins interacting with a given spin. Finally the choice of loop diagrams is justified at high temperature by exact agreement to second order in
TTc (and by a very close agreement to fourth order) with the rigorous high-temperature series expansion. Thus the theory agrees with rigorous results in the low-temperature and paramagnetic regions and has a well-defined criterion of validity in the intermediate temperature region. For nearest-neighbor interactions and spin \textonehalf{} the specific heat is continuous through the Curie temperature, with an infinite slope on the low-temperature side of the transition.
A general discussion on applying the cluster variation method to non-uniform Ising and Heisenberg models is given. In particular, a general formula is provided for obtaining the linear response to increases of the external fields and the parameters of interactions for the uniform Ising and Heisenberg models in the cluster variation method. As an illustration, it is shown that the expressions of the spin-pair correlation function in the pair and the square approximation are readily derived by the formula, for the Ising models on the square and simple cubic lattices.
I show that the cluster variation method, long used as a powerful hierarchy of approximations for discrete (Ising-like) two-dimensional lattice models, yields exact results on the disorder varieties which appear when competitive interactions are put into these models. I consider, as an example, the plaquette approximation of the cluster variation method for the square lattice Ising model with nearest-neighbor, next-nearest-neighbor, and plaquette interactions, and, after rederiving known results, report simple closed-form expressions for the pair and plaquette correlation functions.
The cluster-variation method was used to calculate the critical temperature for the fcc Ising ferromagnet in three different cluster approximations. A scheme for determing a set of independent cluster variables is presented, which considerably simplifies the minimization of the free energy. The system of equations arising from such minimization is solved, in the disordered state, by means of a simple iteration technique. The highest level of approximation treated in this work yields a critical temperature which is only 1.5% above the one estimated by the exact high-temperature expansion of the zero-field susceptibility. Furthermore, the high-temperature expansion for the specific heat gives four exact coefficients and the fifth is determined to within 0.4%.