Baxter has solved a restricted class of square lattice gas models with nearest-neighbor exclusion (thus "hard squares") and next-nearest-neighbor interactions. Arguments are presented which demonstrate that the subspace spanned by his exact solution contains the line of tricritical points and the associated surface of first-order transitions of hard squares with attractive next-nearest-neighbor interactions. The tricritical exponents so identified confirm those obtained by Nienhuis for a dilute Ising model.
The Ising square lattice model with nearest-neighbor (nn) interactions (
J1) is one of the few exactly solvable models [1]. Adding next-neareast- neighbor (nnn) interactions (
J2) or a magnetic field (or both) leads to the non solvability of the model and only some approximate solutions are possible. In this brief report we will review some results obtained within effective field theory. We will show that besides second-order transitions there are also lines of first-order transitions and the coordinates of tricritical points are calculated.