English: This
tartan-like graph shows the
Ising model probability density for the two-sided lattice using the dyadic mapping.
That is, a lattice configuration of length
is understood to consist of a sequence of "spins" . This sequence may be represented by two real numbers with
and
The energy of a given configuration is computed using the
classical Hamiltonian,
Here, is the shift operator, acting on the lattice by shifting all spins over by one position:
The interaction potential is given by the Ising model interaction
Here, the constant is the interaction strength between two neighboring spins and , while the constant may be interpreted as the strength of the interaction between the magnetic field and the magnetic moment of the spin.
The set of all possible configurations form a canonical ensemble, with each different configuration occurring with a probability given by the Boltzmann distribution
where is Boltzmann's constant, is the temperature, and is the partition function. The partition function is defined to be such that the sum over all probabilities adds up to one; that is, so that
Image details
The image here shows for the Ising model, with , and temperature . The lattice is finite sized, with , so that all lattice configurations are represented, each configuration denoted by one pixel. The color choices here are such that black represents values where are zero, blue are small values, with yellow and red being progressively larger values.
As an invariant measure
This fractal tartan is invariant under the Baker's map. The shift operator on the lattice has an action on the unit square with the following representation:
This map (up to a reflection/rotation around the 45-degree axis) is essentially the Baker's map or equivalently the Horseshoe map. As the article on the Horseshoe map explains, the invariant sets have such a tartan pattern (an appropriately deformed Sierpinski carpet). In this case, the invariance arises from the translation invariance of the Gibbs states of the Ising model: that is, the energy associated with the state is invariant under the action of :
for all integers . Similarly, the probability density is invariant as well:
The naive classical treatment given here suffers from conceptual difficulties in the limit. These problems can be remedied by using a more appropriate topology on the set of states that make up the configuration space. This topology is the cylinder set topology, and using it allows one to construct a sigma algebra and thus a measure on the set of states. With this topology, the probability density can be understood to be a translation-invariant measure on the topology. Indeed, there is a certain sense in which the seemingly fractal patterns generated by the iterated Baker's map or horseshoe map can be understood with a conventional and well-behaved topology on a lattice model.
Created by Linas Vepstas
User:Linas on 24 September 2006