The critical Ising model via Kac-Ward matrices

Abstract

The Kac-Ward formula allows to compute the Ising partition function on any finite graph G from the determinant of 2^{2g} matrices, where g is the genus of a surface in which G embeds. We show that in the case of isoradially embedded graphs with critical weights, these determinants have quite remarkable properties. First of all, they satisfy some generalized Kramers-Wannier duality: there is an explicit equality relating the determinants associated to a graph and to its dual graph. Also, they are proportional to the determinants of the discrete critical Laplacians on the graph G, exactly when the genus g is zero or one. Finally, they share several formal properties with the Ray-Singer \bar\partial-torsions of the Riemann surface in which G embeds.

30 pages, 10 figures; added section 4.4 in version 3

References in corpus (2)

• A generalized Kac-Ward formula
• From Cycle Rooted Spanning Forests to the Critical Ising Model: an Explicit Construction

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