Continuously infinite commensurate-incommensurate phase transition of a two-dimensional competing Ising model

We consider the critical behavior of a two-dimensional competing axial Ising model including interactions up to third nearest neighbors in one direction. On the basis of a low-temperature analysis relating the transfer matrix of this model with the Hamiltonian of theS = 1/2XXZ chain, it is shown that the usual square root singularity dominating commensurate-incommensurate phase transitions of two-dimensional systems merges into a continuously infinite transition for certain relations among the coupling parameters. The conjectured equivalence between the maximum eigenstate of the transfer matrix associated with this model and the ground state of theXXZ chain is tested numerically for lattice widths up to 18 sites.