On the Residual Entropy of the Blume-Emery-Griffiths Model

By means of a transfer matrix method, we show that the residual entropy S of the two dimensional square lattice Blume-Emery-Griffiths model on the antiquadrupolar-disordered and ferromagnetic-antiquadrupolar-disordered phase boundaries satisfies the inequalities (ln λ _1,n )/(n+1)≤S≤(ln λ _1,n )/n, where λ _1,n is the largest eigenvalue of a transfer matrix F _n on a strip of width n. These bounds imply the existence of a O(1/n) correction in the approximation of S by (ln λ _1,n )/n. Using these bounds, we calculate numerically the value of S, with precise estimates on the errors.