Paper 4, Section II, A

Statistical Physics | Part II, 2018

The one-dimensional Ising model consists of a set of NN spins sis_{i} with Hamiltonian

H=−J∑i=1Nsisi+1−B2∑i=1N(si+si+1)H=-J \sum_{i=1}^{N} s_{i} s_{i+1}-\frac{B}{2} \sum_{i=1}^{N}\left(s_{i}+s_{i+1}\right)

where periodic boundary conditions are imposed so sN+1=s1s_{N+1}=s_{1}. Here JJ is a positive coupling constant and BB is an external magnetic field. Define a 2×22 \times 2 matrix MM with elements

Mst=exp⁡[βJst+βB2(s+t)]M_{s t}=\exp \left[\beta J s t+\frac{\beta B}{2}(s+t)\right]

where indices s,ts, t take values ±1\pm 1 and β=(kT)−1\beta=(k T)^{-1} with kk Boltzmann's constant and TT temperature.

(a) Prove that the partition function of the Ising model can be written as

Z=Tr⁡(MN)Z=\operatorname{Tr}\left(M^{N}\right)

Calculate the eigenvalues of MM and hence determine the free energy in the thermodynamic limit N→∞N \rightarrow \infty. Explain why the Ising model does not exhibit a phase transition in one dimension.

(b) Consider the case of zero magnetic field B=0B=0. The correlation function ⟨sisj⟩\left\langle s_{i} s_{j}\right\rangle is defined by

⟨sisj⟩=1Z∑{sk}sisje−βH\left\langle s_{i} s_{j}\right\rangle=\frac{1}{Z} \sum_{\left\{s_{k}\right\}} s_{i} s_{j} e^{-\beta H}

(i) Show that, for i>1i>1,

⟨s1si⟩=1Z∑s,tst(Mi−1)st(MN−i+1)ts\left\langle s_{1} s_{i}\right\rangle=\frac{1}{Z} \sum_{s, t} s t\left(M^{i-1}\right)_{s t}\left(M^{N-i+1}\right)_{t s}

(ii) By diagonalizing MM, or otherwise, calculate MpM^{p} for any positive integer pp. Hence show that

⟨s1si⟩=tanh⁡i−1(βJ)+tanh⁡N−i+1(βJ)1+tanh⁡N(βJ)\left\langle s_{1} s_{i}\right\rangle=\frac{\tanh ^{i-1}(\beta J)+\tanh ^{N-i+1}(\beta J)}{1+\tanh ^{N}(\beta J)}

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