Return to Colloquia & Seminar listing
The Ising Model and Peierls' Argument
Student-Run Research SeminarSpeaker: | Justin Abbott, UC Davis Mathematics Dept. |
Location: | 693 Kerr |
Start time: | Mon, Apr 15 2002, 11:00AM |
The Ising model is a classical model of magnetism introduced in 1925 to study phase transitions. In 1-d Ising himself showed that there was not a phase transition and incorrectly concluded that the model did not exibit a phase transition. In 1936 Peierls showed that there was a phase transition in 2-d. I will briefly introduce what a phase transition is, both physically and mathematically, define the Ising model, and present a proof in the spirit of Peierls that it has a phase transition in 2-d.