English

Mapping all classical spin models to a lattice gauge theory

Quantum Physics 2014-11-20 v3 Statistical Mechanics High Energy Physics - Lattice

Abstract

In our recent work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 230502 (2009)] we showed that the partition function of all classical spin models, including all discrete standard statistical models and all Abelian discrete lattice gauge theories (LGTs), can be expressed as a special instance of the partition function of a 4-dimensional pure LGT with gauge group Z_2 (4D Z_2 LGT). This provides a unification of models with apparently very different features into a single complete model. The result uses an equality between the Hamilton function of any classical spin model and the Hamilton function of a model with all possible k-body Ising-type interactions, for all k, which we also prove. Here, we elaborate on the proof of the result, and we illustrate it by computing quantities of a specific model as a function of the partition function of the 4D Z_2 LGT. The result also allows one to establish a new method to compute the mean-field theory of Z_2 LGTs with d > 3, and to show that computing the partition function of the 4D Z_2 LGT is computationally hard (#P hard). The proof uses techniques from quantum information.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0911.2096,
  title  = {Mapping all classical spin models to a lattice gauge theory},
  author = {G. De las Cuevas and W. Dür and H. J. Briegel and M. A. Martin-Delgado},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0911.2096},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

21 pages, 21 figures; published version

R2 v1 2026-06-21T14:10:09.387Z