The order parameter of the chiral Potts model (Q2481426)

The chiral Potts model is a system of spins living on the sites of a planar lattice, usually taken to be the square lattice \(L.\) Each spin takes one of \(N\) possible states, labelled \(0,\dots,N-1\) and interacts with its neighbors. If the spin at site \(i\) is \(\sigma_i\), then the interaction between spins on adjacent sites \(i\) and \(j\) depends on \(\sigma_i , \sigma_j\) only via their difference \(\sigma_i - \sigma_j \)(mod \(N\)). An outstanding problem in statistical mechanics is the order parameter of the chiral Potts model. An elegant conjecture for this was made in [\textit{G. Albertini, B. M. McCoy, J. H. H. Perk}, and \textit{S. Tang}, Excitation spectrum and order parameter for the integrable \(N-\)state chiral Potts model. Nucl. Phys. B 314, 741--763 (1989)]. It has since been successfully tested against series expansions, but there is as yet no proof of the conjecture. In this paper the author shows that if one makes a certain analyticity assumption similar to that used to derive the free erergy, then one can indeed verify the conjecture.