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Physical Review

Variational Calculation for the Ising Model

B. V. Thompson

Published May 31, 1965• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The partition function of the Ising model with $N$ spins, written as a functional integral, is approximated by replacing the field ${\ensuremath{\psi}}_{l}$ at the lattice site $l$ by the root-mean-square value of these fields, and evaluating the integral by a saddle-point method. A phase transition, whose mechanism is mathematically similar to that of the spherical model, is predicted at a temperature lower than the Weiss critical temperature. After parametrizing the mean-square field, one may apply a general variational principle to choose the parameters which minimize the difference between the approximate free energy and the exact Ising-model free energy. This optimum choice leads to the Horwitz-Callen theory.

DOI
10.1103/physrev.138.a1433

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Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General•Oct 1, 1981•11 citations
The partition function of the Ising model with NNN spins, written as a functional integral, is approximated by replacing the field \ensuremathψl{\ensuremath{\psi}}_{l}\ensuremathψl​ at the lattice site lll by the root-mean-square value of these fields, and evaluating the integral by a saddle-point method. A phase transition, whose mechanism is mathematically similar to that of the spherical model, is predicted at a temperature lower than the Weiss critical temperature. After parametrizing the mean-square field, one may apply a general variational principle to choose the parameters which minimize the difference between the approximate free energy and the exact Ising-model free energy. This optimum choice leads to the Horwitz-Callen theory.
Rewriting the partition function of an Ising system as a multiple integral, dividing the integration space by a set of concentric spherical surfaces and sets of parallel planes into small domains, averaging separately the two factors constituting the integrand of the multiple integral over each of these domains, and replacing the two factors by their respective averages, logarithm of the partition function per spin is given by the extremum of a function with respect to a complex variable and a number of real variables. The specific heat curve of an Ising square lattice obtained by the present method is compared with those by the exact method, the spherical approximation and the mean field approximation.
Abstract Very few statistical mechanical models have been solved exactly. In three dimensions not even the nearest neighbour spin-1/2 Ising model is tractable. Therefore it is necessary to resort to approximation methods. One of the most widely used of these is mean-field theory. A systematic way of deriving the mean-field theory for a given microscopic Hamiltonian is to start from the Bogoliubov inequality This gives the best possible approximation to the true free energy for a given choice of Ho because the inequality (4.1) insists that the meanfield free energy cannot fall below the true free energy. (This is analogous to the variational principle in quantum mechanics.) The usual choice for Ho is a free Hamiltonian -one with no interactions-as this enables explicit calculation of the right-hand side of (4.1).
These lectures describe the physics of phase transitions and critical phenomena. After introducing the thermodynamics of phase transitions, these general considerations are made explicit by presenting statistical mechanical calculations on a lattice gas model in the mean-field approximation. Then the Landau theory of phase transitions is presented. The form of free energy in the Landau theory is motivated by an explicit mean field calculation for the Ising model. This is followed by a discussion of spatial correlations and the breakdown of the mean field theory due to increase of spatial fluctuations near the critical point. This calculation also brings out the role of dimension of the system for the critical behaviour. The basic ideas of Renormalization Group (RG) are then introduced and illustrated by a simple RG calculation for the one-dimensional Ising model. Real-space RG calculations are then applied to the two-dimensional Ising model on the triangular lattice, which, in fact, brings forth several key features of the RG technique. A discussion of more general aspects of the RG formalism, such as scaling for spatial correlation functions, relevant and irrelevant couplings, universality, upper critical dimension, etc. are introduced.
A functional-integral formulation of the Ising model is used as a link between the usual approach in terms of summation over spin variables and field-theory-like formulas. The latter take the form of Feynman-diagram expansions, Dyson integral equations, or Schwinger functional-derivative field equations. Basic to the theory is a spinless-nucleon-like Green's function, related to the Ising spin-spin correlation function. By means of an infinite renormalization technique, a mesonlike propagator, related to local energy-energy correlations, is bootstrapped. Finally, a vertex function, associated with energy-spin-spin correlations, is introduced. To zeroth order this theory bears similarity to the spherical model, but vital differences are also noted. A brief discussion is presented of the relation of methods employed in field theory for the treatment of the infrared divergence, and approximations which might be of value for critical correlations.
An approximation for calculating the thermodynamic properties of spin-\textonehalf{} Ising models is described. The method is based on the formulation of Kramers and Wannier for the square lattice, and involves expressing the free energy in terms of the limiting maximum eigenvalue of a matrix sequence which represents the contribution from a single spin of the lattice. The application of this formulation to various two- and three-dimensional lattices shows that many of these are characterized by an identically structured matrix sequence with exactly two nonvanishing elements in each row and column. To explore the potential of using this similarity and its simplicity for analyzing Ising models we consider the two-dimensional square lattice in an external field and approximate the doubly infinite lattice by a semi-infinite one consisting of $n (\ensuremath{\le}10)$ infinitely long rows. Calculations are carried out and compared with (1) Onsager's formula for the free energy, (2) the Onsanger-Yang formula for the spontaneous magnetization, and (3) values calculated from series. Except for the region around the critical point where the correlation length exceeds nnn lattice spacings, substantial agreement---to better than 12 places of decimals in some cases---is obtained. As an additional measure of the potential of this method, a value for the critical exponent $\ensuremath{\delta}$ is computed by the extrapolation of the magnetization along the critical isotherm. The result is found to be in excellent agreement with the known value for $\ensuremath{\delta}$.