Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 209 4 a i Solution Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
Under plus boundary conditions, if , the negative cluster containing the origin is surrounded by a Peierls contour . Flipping all spins inside is injective after is specified and increases the Boltzmann weight by . ThereforeThe number of length- contours surrounding the origin is at most , so the sum tends to zero as , uniformly in . For sufficiently large it is below , and then
Symmetry-breaking order of limits 2026-10-14
At zero field and with spin inversion symmetry in its boundary conditions, a finite Ising model pairs every configuration with its spin-reversed configuration. Their equal Boltzmann weights force the expected value of its spin magnetization to vanish. Below a model's ordering critical temperature, an arbitrarily small positive field can instead select the positive spontaneous magnetization if size is taken to infinity first:The distinction is the order of limits and the stated symmetric boundary conditions; plus boundary conditions already break spin inversion symmetry. A zero-field symmetric mixture of the two ordered states can retain zero mean spin magnetization even in the thermodynamic limit. Also, in a finite system is not by itself proof of spontaneous symmetry breaking.[ref]
1 From Spins to Fields. §1.2.1, Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking: displayed nested limit and the immediately following explanation