Critical Indices for a System of Spins of Arbitrary Dimensionality Situated on a Lattice of Arbitrary Dimensionality

Abstract

A model Hamiltonian H=−JΣ(ij)Si·Sj is considered, where Si are isotropically interacting D-dimensional classical spins. Thus the S=½ Ising, classical planar, and classical Heisenberg models are obtained if D=1, 2, and 3, respectively; moreover, as D→∞, the free energy corresponding to H approaches the free energy of the exactly-soluble spherical model of Berlin and Kac. H can also be solved exactly providing the lattice dimensionality d=1. For lattices of higher dimensionality, we must resort to approximation techniques; hence we calculate high-temperature expansions for arbitrary D and d of the susceptibility, internal energy (specific heat), and the second moment. (With a few exceptions, such expansions have been available in the past only for D=1, 3 and d=1–3.) Somewhat smoother series to facilitate more reliable extrapolation are then obtained by re-expanding all of the series in terms of the nearest-neighbor spin correlation function for a one-dimensional lattice. We then study the dependence on spin and lattice dimensionality of the critical temperatures Tc(D, d) and the critical exponents γ(D, d) [(χ∼(T-Tc)−γ], α(D, d) [C∼(T-Tc)−α], ν(D, d) [inverse correlation range κ∼(T-Tc)−v]. These ``critical properties'' are all found to vary monotonically (and in most cases, smoothly) with D and d. The assumptions behind making critical phenomena predictions from a dozen or so terms (of an infinite series!) are given increased plausibility by the fact that we have extended the various expansions for the spherical model to 80–100 terms and find that none of the predictions based upon ∼10 terms is changed [e.g., Tc(∞, 2)=0, γ(∞, 3)=2, etc.].