We give a physical interpretation of the entries of the reflection
K matrices of Baxter's eight-vertex model in terms of an Ising interaction at an open boundary. Although the model still defies an exact solution, we nevertheless obtain the exact surface free energy from a crossing-unitarity relation. The singular part of the surface energy is described by the critical exponents ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}2\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\pi}/2\ensuremath{\mu}$ and ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{1}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\pi}/\ensuremath{\mu}$, where \ensuremath{\mu} controls the strength of the four-spin interaction. These values reduce to the known Ising exponents at the decoupling point $\ensuremath{\mu}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\pi}/2$ and confirm the scaling relations ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{b}+\ensuremath{\nu}$ and ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{1}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{b}\ensuremath{-}1$.
The specific heat, energy, and free energy of an infinitely long, square-lattice ferromagnetic Ising strip consisting of
n parallel layers with free boundary conditions and a surface magnetic field
H1=kBTh1 imposed on the last layer, is analyzed for large
n in the light of finite-size scaling theory. It is shown rigorously that the free energy (and, similarly, the energy and specific heat) can be written asymptotically in the scaling form $\ensuremath{\Delta}f(n,t,{h}_{1})\ensuremath{\approx}{n}^{\ensuremath{-}2}(\mathrm{ln}n){W}_{1}(nt,{n}^{\frac{1}{2}}{h}_{1})+{n}^{\ensuremath{-}2}{W}_{2}(nt,{n}^{\frac{1}{2}}{h}_{1})$, where $t=\frac{(T\ensuremath{-}{T}_{c})}{{T}_{c}}$. The scaling functions
Wi(x,y) are computed in explicit closed form and shown to verify all the analyticity and asymptotic requirements anticipated by scaling theory. Furthermore, in the limit $n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ at fixed $t\ensuremath{\ne}0$, the bulk and surface contributions to the thermodynamic properties are found to account for all except a correction of order ${e}^{\frac{\mathrm{pna}}{\ensuremath{\xi}(T)}}$, where
a is the lattice spacing and $\ensuremath{\xi}(T)$ is the bulk correlation length; the value of the small rational constant
p is interpreted in terms of interference effects between the two opposite boundaries (or "surfaces").
Phase transitions in Ising models with tree surfaces are studied from various points of view, including a phenomenological Landau theory, high-temperature series expansions, and a scaling theory for thermodynamic quantities and correlation functions. In the presence of a surface a number of new critical exponents must be defined. These arise because of the existence of "surface" terms in the thermodynamic functions, and because of the anisotropy of space and lack of translational symmetry introduced by the surface. The need for these new critical exponents already appears in the phenomenological theory, which is discussed in detail and related to the microscopic mean-field approximation. The essential new parameter appearing in this theory is an extrapolation length $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ which enters the boundary condition on the magnetization at the surface. For magnetic systems this length is of the order of the interaction range, in contrast to superconductors, where it is usually much larger. In order to go beyond the mean-field theory, high-temperature series expansions are carried out for the Ising half-space, to tenth order in two dimensions and to eighth order in three dimensions. A scaling theory is developed both for thermodynamic functions and for spin correlations near the surface, and relations are found among the exponents of the half-space. Both the scaling theory and the numerical calculations are compared with the exact solution of the Ising half-plane (two dimensions) by McCoy and Wu, and agreement is found wherever the theory is applicable. In analogy to the bulk situation, the scaling theory is found to agree with mean-field theory in four dimensions. The prediction of the present work which is most easily accessible to experiment is the temperature dependence of the magnetization at the surface, with critical exponent estimated to be ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{1}=\frac{2}{3}$. The mean-field result, ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{1}=1$, seems to agree more closely with presently available experiment, and more work is needed to clarify the situation.
The critical two-dimensional Ising model is studied with four types boundary conditions: free, fixed ferromagnetic, fixed antiferromagnetic, and fixed double antiferromagnetic. Using bond propagation algorithms with surface fields, we obtain the free energy, internal energy, and specific heat numerically on square lattices with a square shape and various combinations of the four types of boundary conditions. The calculations are carried out on the square lattices with size N×N and 30<N<1000. The numerical data are analyzed with finite-size scaling. The bulk, edge, and corner terms are extracted very accurately. The exact results are conjectured for the corner logarithmic term in the free energy, the edge logarithmic term in the internal energy, and the corner logarithmic term in the specific heat. The corner logarithmic terms in the free energy agree with the conformal field theory very well.
The boundary-induced scaling of three-dimensional random field Ising magnets is investigated close to the bulk critical point by exact combinatorial optimization methods. We measure several exponents describing surface criticality: ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{1}$ for the surface layer magnetization and the surface excess exponents for the magnetization and the specific heat, ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{s}$ and ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s}$. The latter are related to the bulk phase transition by the same scaling laws as in pure systems, but only with the same violation of the hyperscaling exponent $\ensuremath{\theta}$ as in the bulk. The boundary disorders faster than the bulk, and the experimental and theoretical implications are discussed.
The critical 2-dimensional Ising model is studied with four types boundary conditions: free, fixed ferromagnetic, fixed antiferromagnetic, fixed double antiferromagnetic. Using Bond Propagation algorithms with surface fields, we obtained the free energy, internal energy and specific heat numerically on square lattices with square shape and various combinations of the four types boundary conditions. The numerical data are analyzed with finite size scaling. The bulk, edge and corner terms are extracted very accurately. The exact results are conjectured for the corner logarithmic term in the free energy, the edge and corner logarithmic terms in the internal energy and specific heat. The corner logarithmic terms in the free energy agree with the conformal field theory very well.