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Statistical Mechanics - Physics at Oregon State University

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222 CHAPTER 9. GENERAL METHODS: CRITICAL EXPONENTS.<br />

if the series converges.<br />

At this point we have established a general procedure rel<strong>at</strong>ing the partition<br />

function of a system to a partition function containing the combined effects of<br />

the spins in a block of two. The coupling constants ˜ J and ˜ h changed values,<br />

however. They had to be renormalized in order for the expressions to be valid.<br />

Hence the new system is different from the old one, since it is not described<br />

by the same Hamiltonian. It is possible th<strong>at</strong> in certain cases both ˜ J ′ = ˜ J and<br />

˜h ′ = ˜ h. In th<strong>at</strong> case the old and new system do represent the same physics, no<br />

m<strong>at</strong>ter how many times we apply the demagnific<strong>at</strong>ion oper<strong>at</strong>ion. Critical points<br />

therefore correspond to fixed points of the renormaliz<strong>at</strong>ion formulas. One has<br />

to keep in mind th<strong>at</strong> a fixed point does not necessarily correspond to a critical<br />

point; there are more fixed points than critical points.<br />

The one-dimensional Ising model depends only on two coupling constants.<br />

These represent the interaction energy between the spins and the energy of a<br />

spin in an external field. Both constants are scaled with respect to kBT . It is in<br />

general always possible to scale the constants with respect to the temper<strong>at</strong>ure,<br />

since the partition function always combines β and H in a product. In a general<br />

model, one has a number of coupling constants, and a search for critical points<br />

corresponds to a search for fixed points in a many-dimensional space. The<br />

easiest example of such a search is again for the one-dimensional Ising model,<br />

this time without an external field. Hence ˜ h = 0 and 9.161 shows th<strong>at</strong> ˜ h ′ = 0<br />

too. In every step of the renormaliz<strong>at</strong>ion procedure the coupling constant for<br />

the external field remains zero. The renormaliz<strong>at</strong>ion equ<strong>at</strong>ion 9.160 is now very<br />

simple:<br />

˜J ′ ( ˜ J, 0) = 1<br />

2 log cosh(2 ˜ J) (9.167)<br />

Since cosh(x) ex we see th<strong>at</strong> log cosh(2 ˜ J) log e2 ˜ J = 2J˜ and hence<br />

0 ˜ J ′ ˜ J. This also implies g( ˜ J ′ , 0) g( ˜ J, 0), and hence the series 9.166 for<br />

the free energy converges and is bounded by <br />

1 k<br />

k 2 g( J, ˜ 0) = 2g( J, ˜ 0).<br />

Suppose we start with a coupling constant ˜ J = ˜ J (0) . Each iter<strong>at</strong>ion adds<br />

a prime to the value according to the equ<strong>at</strong>ion 9.160 and after k iter<strong>at</strong>ions we<br />

have the value ˜ J = ˜ J (k) . If we keep going, we arrive <strong>at</strong> limk→∞ ˜ J (k) = ˜ J (∞) .<br />

Because of the limiting conditions we have 0 ˜ J (∞) ˜ J.<br />

Since the function g is also decreasing, we can get a lower bound on the free<br />

energy by using the infinite value, and we find<br />

2Ng( ˜ J (∞) , 0) −βG 2Ng( ˜ J (0) , 0) (9.168)<br />

It is clear th<strong>at</strong> the value of ˜ J (∞) depends on the initial value of ˜ J and hence<br />

on the temper<strong>at</strong>ure T . The possible values of ˜ J (∞) can be found by taking the<br />

limit in 9.160 on both sides. Th<strong>at</strong> leads to<br />

˜J (∞) = 1<br />

2 log<br />

<br />

cosh(2 ˜ J (∞) <br />

)<br />

(9.169)

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