Semi-infinite Ising model

We study the equilibrium statistical mechanics of the semi-infinite Ising model, interpreted as a model of a binary system near a wall. In particular, the wetting transition is analyzed. In dimensionsd3 and at low temperature, we prove the existence of a layering transition which is of first-order.Dedicated to Walter Thirring on his 60^th birthday     

A rigorous bound on the critical exponent for the number of lattice trees,animals, and polygons

The number ofn-site lattice trees (up to translation) is believed to behave asymptotically asCn ^{–0 n} , where is a critical exponent dependent only on the dimensiond of the lattice. We present a rigorous proof that (d–1)/d for anyd2. The method also applies to lattice animals, site animals, and two-dimensional self-avoiding polygons. We also prove that v whend=2, wherev is the exponent for the radius of gyration.     

Particles and scaling for lattice fields and Ising models

The conjectured inequality ⁽⁶⁾0 leads to the existence of _d ⁴ fields and the scaling (continuum) limit ford-dimensional Ising models. Assuming ⁽⁶⁾0 and Lorentz covariance of this construction, we show that ford6 these _d ⁴ fields are free fields unless the field strength renormalizationZ ^–1 diverges. Let be the bare charge and the lattice spacing. Under the same assumptions (⁽⁶⁾0, Lorentz covariance andd6) we show that if ^4–d is bounded as 0, thenZ ^–1 is bounded and the limit field is free.Supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant MPS 74-13252Supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant MPS 75-21212     

Extremity of the disordered phase in the Ising model on the Bethe lattice

We prove that the disordered Gibbs distribution in the ferromagnetic Ising model on the Bethe lattice is extreme forTT _c ^SG , whereT _c ^SG is the critical temperature of the spin glass model on the Bethe lattice, and it is not extreme forT _c ^SG .     

Perturbation about the mean field critical point

We consider two models that are small perturbations of Gaussian or mean field models: the first one is a double well /4⁴ — /2² perturbation of a massless Gaussian lattice field in the weak coupling limit (0, proportional to ). The other consists of a spin 1/2 Ising model with long-range Kac type interactions; the inverse range of the interaction, , is the small parameter. The second model is related to the first one via a sine-Gordon transformation. The lattice ^d has dimensiond3.In both cases we derive an asymptotic estimate to first order (in or ²) on the location of the critical point. Moreover, we prove bounds on the remainder of an expansion in or around the Gaussian or mean field critical points.The appendix, due to E. Speer, contains an extension of Weinberg's theorem on the divergence of Feynman graphs which is used in the proofs.Supported by NSF Grant # MCS 78-01885Supported by NSF Grant # PHY 78-15920     

Passive states and KMS states for general quantum systems

We characterize equilibrium states of quantum systems by a condition of passivity suggested by the second principle of thermodynamics. Ground states and -KMS states for all inverse temperatures 0 are completely passive. We prove that these states are the only completely passive ones. For the special case of states describing pure phases, assuming the passivity we reproduce the results of Haag et al.     

The particle structure ofv-dimensional Ising models at low temperatures

In this work we study thev-dimensional Ising model at low temperatures and establish the existence of an upper gap in the energy-momentum spectrum of the two-point function forv3. Forv=2, it is known that this gap is absent.Supported in part by Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas (CNPq-Brazil), Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil) and the National Science Foundation under Grant PHY76-17191     

Hyperscaling inequalities for percolation

A set of critical exponent inequalities for independent percolation which saturate under the hyperscaling hypothesis is proved. One of the consequences of the inequalities is the lower boundd _C6 for the upper critical dimension. The proof is based on a rigorous version of the finite size scaling argument which extends easily to other systems such as Ising ferromagnets.Supported by NSF Grant PHY-85-15288-A01     

On the Haar measure of the quantumSU(N) group

We prove that the Haar state associated to the compact matrix quantum groupSU (N) is faithful for ]–1,1[,0, and anyN2.     

Bound on the mass gap for finite volume stochastic ising models at low temperature

We consider a sequence of finite volume Z ^d ,d2, reversible stochastic Ising models in the low temperature regime and having invariant measures satisfying free boundary conditions. We show that associated with the models are random hitting times whose expectations, regarded as a function of , grow exponentially in ||( ^d-1)/d ; moreover, the mass gaps for the models shrink exponentially fast in ||( ^d-1)/d . A geometrical lemma is employed in the analysis which states that if a Peierls' contour is sufficiently small relative to the faces of , then the fraction of the contour tangent to the faces is less than a constant smaller than one.     

Density and uniqueness in percolation

Two results on site percolation on thed-dimensional lattice,d1 arbitrary, are presented. In the first theorem, we show that for stationary underlying probability measures, each infinite cluster has a well-defined density with probability one. The second theorem states that if in addition, the probability measure satisfies the finite energy condition of Newman and Schulman, then there can be at most one infinite cluster with probability one. The simple arguments extend to a broad class of finite-dimensional models, including bond percolation and regular lattices.     

Stochastic Schrödinger operators and Jacobi matrices on the strip

We discuss stochastic Schrödinger operators and Jacobi matrices with wave functions, taking values in ^l so there are 2l Lyaponov exponents ₁..._l0 _l+1..._2l =–₁. Our results include the fact that if ₁=0 on a set positive measure, thenV is deterministic and one that says that {E|exactly 2j 's are zero} is the essential support of the a.c. spectrum of multiplicity 2j.Research partially supported by USNSF under grant DMS-8416049     

On the decay of correlations inSO(n)-symmetric ferromagnets

We prove that for low temperaturesT the spin-spin correlation function of the two-dimensional classicalSO(n)-symmetric Ising ferromagnet decays faster than |x|^–constT providedn2. We also discuss a nearest neighbor continuous spin model, with spins restricted to a finite interval, where we show that the spin-spin correlation function decays exponentially in any number of dimensions.Work supported in part by NSF, Grant PHY76-17191A Sloan Fellow     

Self-avoiding walk in five or more dimensions I. The critical behaviour

We use the lace expansion to study the standard self-avoiding walk in thed-dimensional hypercubic lattice, ford5. We prove that the numberc _n ofn-step self-avoiding walks satisfiesc _n ~A ⁿ , where is the connective constant (i.e. =1), and that the mean square displacement is asymptotically linear in the number of steps (i.e.v=1/2). A bound is obtained forc _n(x), the number ofn-step self-avoiding walks ending atx. The correlation length is shown to diverge asymptotically like (^––Z)^1/2. The critical two-point function is shown to decay at least as fast as x^–2, and its Fourier transform is shown to be asymptotic to a multiple ofk ^–2 ask0 (i.e. =0). We also prove that the scaling limit is Gaussian, in the sense of convergence in distribution to Brownian motion. The infinite self-avoiding walk is constructed. In this paper we prove these results assuming convergence of the lace expansion. The convergence of the lace expansion is proved in a companion paper.Supported by the Nishina Memorial Foundation and NSF grant PHY-8896163.Supported by NSERC grant A9351     

Duality and absence of locally generated superselection sectors for CCR-type algebras

We isolate an abstract algebraic property which implies duality in all locally normal, irreducible representations of a quasilocalC*-algebra if it holds together with two more specific conditions. All these conditions holding for the CCR-algebra ind2 space time dimensions duality follows for representations of the two-dimensional CCR-algebra generated by pure Wightman states ofP()₂-theories. We then show that algebras of this kind have no nontrivial locally generated superselection sectors which ford3 yields a first approximation to a quantum analogue of Derrick's theorem.Supported by Science Research Council     

Positron annihilation anomaly in the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7−x

We have measured the ac susceptibility of a wire with a Nb core (1.27 mm diam.) and a Cu cladding (0.37 mm thickness) atT50 K andB0.1 mG. Due to its proximity to Nb, the Cu becomes fully superconducting. From the data we find a breakdown fieldH _b =1.2 (mG) and a coherence length =2.2T ^–1/2 (m) for the Cu, as well as a field penetration depth -34T ^1/2 (m) at the Cu/Nb interface.     

Transfer matrix analysis of the two-dimensional ANNNI model

The two-dimensional axial next-nearest neighbour Ising (ANNNI) model is studied for the first time by a transfer matrix method for semi-infinite strips (N×;N13). One obtains the thermodynamic properties and, more important, the correlation functions, which display directly the various magnetic structures. In one part of the phase diagram where a disorder line is believed to follow closely the ferromagnetic transition line the critical exponents appear to deviate from the expected ones. ForN13 a variational procedure is proposed.     

Sharpness of the phase transition in percolation models

The equality of two critical points — the percolation thresholdp _H and the pointp _T where the cluster size distribution ceases to decay exponentially — is proven for all translation invariant independent percolation models on homogeneousd-dimensional lattices (d1). The analysis is based on a pair of new nonlinear partial differential inequalities for an order parameterM(,h), which forh=0 reduces to the percolation densityP — at the bond densityp=1–e ^– in the single parameter case. These are: (1)MhM/h+M ²+MM/, and (2) M/|J|MM/h. Inequality (1) is intriguing in that its derivation provides yet another hint of a ³ structure in percolation models. Moreover, through the elimination of one of its derivatives, (1) yields a pair of ordinary differential inequalities which provide information on the critical exponents and . One of these resembles an Ising model inequality of Fröhlich and Sokal and yields the mean field bound 2, and the other implies the result of Chayes and Chayes that . An inequality identical to (2) is known for Ising models, where it provides the basis for Newman's universal relation and for certain extrapolation principles, which are now made applicable also to independent percolation. These results apply to both finite and long range models, with or without orientation, and extend to periodic and weakly inhomogeneous systems.Research supported in part by the NSF Grant PHY-8605164Also in the Physics Department     

On the number of infinite geodesics and ground states in disordered systems

We study first-passage percolation models and their higher dimensional analogs—models of surfaces with random weights. We prove that under very general conditions the number of lines or, in the second case, hypersurfaces which locally minimize the sum of the random weights is with probability one equal to 0 or with probability one equal to +. As corollaries we show that in any dimensiond2 the number of ground states of an Ising ferromagnet with random coupling constants equals (with probability one) 2 or +. Proofs employ simple large-deviation estimates and ergodic arguments.     

Convergence of Nelson fiffusions

Let _t, _t ⁿ ,n1, be solutions of Schrödinger equations with potentials form-bounded by –1/2 and initial data inH ¹( ^d ). LetP, P ⁿ ,n1, be the probability measures on the path space =C(₊, ^d ) given by the corresponding Nelson diffusions. We show that if { _t ⁿ } _n1 converges to _t inH ¹( ^d ), uniformly int over compact intervals, then converges to in total variation t0. Moreover, if the potentials are in the Kato classK _d , we show that the above result follows fromH ¹-convergence of initial data, andK _d -convergence of potentials.