Convergence of block spins defined by a random field

We study the asymptotic behavior of families of dependent random variables called block spins, which are associated with random fields arising in statistical mechanics. We give sufficient conditions for these families to converge weakly to products of independent Gaussian random variables. We also estimate the error terms involved. In addition we give some conditions which imply that the block spins can converge weakly only to families of normal or degenerate random variables. Central to our proofs is a mixing property which is weaker than strong mixing and which holds for many random fields studied in statistical mechanics. Finally we give a simple method for determining when a stationary random field does not satisfy a strong mixing property. This method implies that the two-dimensional Ising model at the critical temperature is not strong mixing, a result obtained by a different method by M. Cassandro and G. Jona-Lasinio. The method also shows that a stationary, mean-zero, positively correlated Gaussian process indexed by is not strong mixing if its covariance function decreases liket^–, 0 < < 1.