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arXiv:hep-th/0312119 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General

Integrable field theory and critical phenomena: the Ising model in a magnetic field

Gesualdo Delfino A

Published Mar 23, 2004• 104 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The two-dimensional Ising model is the simplest model of statistical mechanics exhibiting a second-order phase transition. While in absence of magnetic field it is known to be solvable on the lattice since Onsager's work of the 1940s, exact results for the magnetic case have been missing until the late 1980s, when A Zamolodchikov solved the model in a field at the critical temperature, directly in the scaling limit, within the framework of integrable quantum field theory. In this paper, we review this field theoretical approach to the Ising universality class, with particular attention to the results obtained starting from Zamolodchikov's scattering solution and to their comparison with the numerical estimates on the lattice. The topics discussed include scattering theory, form factors, correlation functions, universal amplitude ratios and perturbations around integrable directions. Although we restrict our discussion to the Ising model, the emphasis is on the general methods of integrable quantum field theory which can be used in the study of all universality classes of critical behaviour in two dimensions.

DOI
10.1088/0305-4470/37/14/r01

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The two-dimensional Ising model is the simplest model of statistical mechanics exhibiting a second-order phase transition. While in absence of magnetic field it is known to be solvable on the lattice since Onsager's work of the 1940s, exact results for the magnetic case have been missing until the late 1980s, when A Zamolodchikov solved the model in a field at the critical temperature, directly in the scaling limit, within the framework of integrable quantum field theory. In this paper, we review this field theoretical approach to the Ising universality class, with particular attention to the results obtained starting from Zamolodchikov's scattering solution and to their comparison with the numerical estimates on the lattice. The topics discussed include scattering theory, form factors, correlation functions, universal amplitude ratios and perturbations around integrable directions. Although we restrict our discussion to the Ising model, the emphasis is on the general methods of integrable quantum field theory which can be used in the study of all universality classes of critical behaviour in two dimensions.
Abstract In undergraduate statistical mechanics courses the Ising model always plays an important role because it is the simplest non-trivial model used to describe magnetic systems. The one-dimensional model is easily solved analytically, while the two-dimensional one can be solved exactly by the Onsager solution. For this reason, numerical simulations are usually used to solve the two-dimensional model. Keeping in mind that the two-dimensional model is the platform for studying phase transitions, it is usually an exercise in computational undergraduate courses because its numerical solution is relatively simple to implement and its critical exponents are perfectly known. The purpose of this article is to present a detailed numerical study of the second-order phase transition in the two-dimensional Ising model at an undergraduate level, allowing readers not only to compare the mean-field solution, the exact solution and the numerical one through a complete study of the order parameter, the correlation function and finite-size scaling, but to present the techniques, along with hints and tips, for solving it themselves. We present the elementary theory of phase transitions and explain how to implement Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations and perform them for different lattice sizes with periodic boundary conditions. Energy, magnetization, specific heat, magnetic susceptibility and the correlation function are calculated and the critical exponents determined by finite-size scaling techniques. The importance of the correlation length as the relevant parameter in phase transitions is emphasized.
The anisotropic two-dimensional Ising model in the presence of a magnetic field is studied within two different approaches: the effective-field theory (EFT) with correlation and the Bethe-Peierls (BP) approximation. The model consists of ferromagnetic interaction (Jx)({J}_{x})(Jx​) in the xxx direction and antiferromagnetic interaction (Jy)({J}_{y})(Jy​) in the yyy direction. The phase diagram in the $T\text{\ensuremath{-}}H$ plane is obtained for the particular case Jx=Jy{J}_{x}={J}_{y}Jx​=Jy​. Special focus is given in the low-temperature region of the phase diagram, where a first-order phase transition is observed using the mean-field approximation, which is in disagreement with the linear chain approximation (LCA). Our results indicate a second-order phase transition for all values of H∕J∊[0,2]H∕J∊[0,2]H∕J∊[0,2], with the presence of a reentrant behavior only observed in the BP approximation in accordance with the results of the LCA and exact solution. The null field critical temperature is an increasing function of r=Jy∕Jxr={J}_{y}∕{J}_{x}r=Jy​∕Jx​, and in the $r\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$ limit we have found, using BP and EFT, the approximate form ${k}_{B}{T}_{N}∕{J}_{x}\ensuremath{\simeq}A∕\mathrm{ln}(1∕r)$ in accordance with the exact result of Onsager.
The two{dimensional (2D) Ising model is reviewed as a theory of free fermions on a lattice.The discussion includes the fermionization procedure based on the mirror{ordered factorization of the density matrix, Gaussian fermionic integral representation for partition function, the momentum{ space analysis and Onsager's result, the eective continuum{limit eld theories and the critical{ point singularities.The emergence of long{range fermionic correlations in a nonzero magnetic eld and the behaviour of the speci c heat along the critical isotherm are commented.Attention is given to the choice of rational computational devices.
The scaling function of the two-dimensional Ising model on the square and triangular lattices is obtained numerically via Baxter's variational corner transfer-matrix approach. The use of Aharony-Fisher nonlinear scaling variables allowed us to perform calculations sufficiently away from the critical point and to confirm all predictions of the scaling and universality hypotheses. Our results are in excellent agreement with quantum field theory calculations of Fonseca and Zamolodchikov as well as with many previously known exact and numerical calculations, including susceptibility results by Barouch, McCoy, Tracy, and Wu.
Abstract In this chapter we will begin our study of the Ising model on the two-dimensional lattice. In two dimensions the model has a phase transition, with critical exponents that have different values from those obtained in the mean field approximation. For this reason, it provides an important example of critical phenomena. As we will see in great detail in this chapter and in the next, among all exactly solved models of statistical mechanics, the two-dimensional Ising model is not only the one that has been most studied but it is also the model that has given a series of deep mathematical and physical results. Many solutions of the model stand out for the ingenious methods used, such as the theory of determinants, combinatorial approaches, Grassmann variables, or elliptic functions. Many results have deeply influenced the understanding of critical phenomena and have strongly stimulated new fields of research. Ideas that have matured within the study of the two-dimensional Ising model, such as the duality between its highand low-temperature phases, have been readily generalized to other systems of statistical mechanics and have also found important and fundamental applications in other important areas such as, for instance, quantum field theory. Equally fundamental is the discovery that in the vicinity of the critical point, the dynamics of the model can be described from the relativistic Dirac equation for Majorana fermions.
Understanding the relationship which integrable (solvable) models, all of which possess very special symmetry properties, have with the generic nonintegrable models that are used to describe real experiments, which do not have the symmetry properties, is one of the most fundamental open questions in both statistical mechanics and quantum field theory.The importance of the two-dimensional Ising model in a magnetic field is that it is the simplest system where this relationship may be concretely studied.We here review the advances made in this study, and concentrate on the magnetic susceptibility which has revealed an unexpected natural boundary phenomenon.When this is combined with the Fermionic representations of conformal characters, it is suggested that the scaling theory, which smoothly connects the lattice with the correlation length scale, may be incomplete for H = 0.