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European Journal of Physics

Combinatorial approach to exactly solve the 1D Ising model

Swarnadeep Seth

Published Dec 13, 2016• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract The Ising model is a well known statistical model which can be solved exactly by various methods. The most familiar one is the transfer matrix method. Sometimes it can be difficult to approach the open boundary case rather than periodic boundary ones in higher dimensions. But physically it is more intuitive to study the open boundary case, as it gives a closer view of the real system. We have introduced a new method called the pairing method to determine the exact partition function for the simplest case, a 1D Ising lattice. This method simplifies the problem's complexities and reduces it to a pure combinatorial problem. The study also reveals that it is possible to apply this pairing method in the case of a 2D square lattice. The obtained results agree perfectly with the values in the literature and this new approach provides an algorithmic insight to deal with such problems.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6404/38/1/015104

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Abstract The Ising model is a well known statistical model which can be solved exactly by various methods. The most familiar one is the transfer matrix method. Sometimes it can be difficult to approach the open boundary case rather than periodic boundary ones in higher dimensions. But physically it is more intuitive to study the open boundary case, as it gives a closer view of the real system. We have introduced a new method called the pairing method to determine the exact partition function for the simplest case, a 1D Ising lattice. This method simplifies the problem's complexities and reduces it to a pure combinatorial problem. The study also reveals that it is possible to apply this pairing method in the case of a 2D square lattice. The obtained results agree perfectly with the values in the literature and this new approach provides an algorithmic insight to deal with such problems.
The square lattice Ising model under the Brascamp-Kunz boundary conditions is a well-known exactly solvable lattice model. The exact solution of this system has been derived within the framework of Pfaffian-type method. In this paper, we provide a derivation for the solution by the Schultz-Mattis-Lieb method in the transfer matrix formalism. We set special interactions on the boundaries and take certain limit of these interactions, so that the system under the Brascamp-Kunz boundary conditions is transformed into another system under the toroidal boundary conditions. The Schultz-Mattis-Lieb method is applied to the mapping system and the partition function is exactly solved in the fermionic representation. The Fisher zeros are analytically calculated and the physical critical point is identified. We also discuss the difference between the transfer matrix approaches to the Brascamp-Kunz and to the toroidal boundary conditions. Our work introduces a member to the family of transfer-matrix-based studies for Ising model under various boundary conditions.
Abstract The partition function of the square lattice Ising model on the rectangle with open boundary conditions in both directions is calculated exactly for arbitrary system size L × M and temperature. We start with the dimer method of Kasteleyn, McCoy and Wu, construct a highly symmetric block transfer matrix and derive a factorization of the involved determinant, effectively decomposing the free energy of the system into two parts, F ( L , M ) = F s t r i p ( L , M ) + F s t r i p r e s ( L , M ) , where the residual part F s t r i p r e s ( L , M ) contains the nontrivial finite- L contributions for fixed M . It is given by the determinant of a M / 2 × M / 2 matrix and can be mapped onto an effective spin model with M Ising spins and long-range interactions. While F s t r i p r e s ( L , M )
There is no an exact solution to three-dimensional (3D) finite-size Ising model (referred to as the Ising model hereafter for simplicity) and even two-dimensional (2D) Ising model with non-zero external field to our knowledge. Here by using an elementary but rigorous method, we obtain an exact solution to the partition function of the Ising model with NNN lattice sites. It is a sum of 2N2^N2N exponential functions and holds for DDD-dimensional (D=1,2,3,...D=1,2,3,...D=1,2,3,...) Ising model with or without the external field. This solution provides a new insight into the problem of the Ising model and the related difficulties, and new understanding of the classic exact solutions for one-dimensional (1D) (Kramers and Wannier, 1941) or 2D Ising model (Onsager, 1944). With this solution, the specific heat and magnetisation of a simple 3D Ising model are calculated, which are consistent with the results from experiments and/or numerical simulations. Furthermore, the solution here and the related approaches, can also be available to other models like the percolation and/or the Potts model.
Abstract The aim of this work is to present a formulation to solve the one-dimensional Ising model using the elementary technique of mathematical induction. This formulation is physically clear and leads to the same partition function form as the transfer matrix method, which is a common subject in the introductory courses of statistical mechanics. In this way our formulation is a useful tool to complement the traditional more abstract transfer matrix method. The method can be straightforwardly generalised to other short-range chains, coupled chains and is also computationally friendly. These two approaches provide a more complete understanding of the system, and therefore our work can be of broad interest for undergraduate teaching in statistical mechanics.
Today, the Ising model is an archetype describing collective ordering processes. As such, it is widely known in physics and far beyond. Less known is the fact that the thesis defended by Ernst Ising 100 years ago (in 1924) contained not only the solution of what we call now the ‘classical 1D Ising model’ but also other problems. Some of these problems, as well as the method of their solution, are the subject of this note. In particular, we discuss the combinatorial method Ernst Ising used to calculate the partition function for a chain of elementary magnets. In the thermodynamic limit, this method leads to the result that the partition function is given by the roots of a certain polynomial. We explicitly show that ‘Ising’s roots’ that arise within the combinatorial treatment are also recovered by the eigenvalues of the transfer matrix, a concept that was introduced much later. Moreover, we discuss the generalization of the two-state model to a three-state one presented in Ising’s thesis, which is not included in his famous paper of 1925 (E. Ising, Z. Physik 31 (1925) 253). The latter model can be considered as a forerunner of the now-abundant models with many-component order parameters.