Transfer Matrix of the Two-dimensional Ising Model

Abstract

Abstract In this chapter we study the solution of the two-dimensional Ising model by means of the transfer matrix. Unlike the methods discussed in the previous chapter, the transfer matrix approach has greater generality and can used to solve exactly other two-dimensional models. Even if the general ideas behind this approach have been explained in Chapter 2 by means of the one-dimensional case, their application to the two-dimensional cases requires more powerful and sophisticated mathematical tools: for instance, the study the eigenvalues of the transfer matrix in the Ising model for T = Tcneeds to employ elliptic functions. The same is also true for other models. In order to present in the simplest possible way the main lines of this method, in the following we focus attention only on the solution of the model at T = Tcbecause this case can be analyzed in terms of simple trigonometric functions.