A unified approach to phase diagrams in field theory and statistical mechanics (Q1118270)

We construct the phase diagram of any system which admits a low- temperature polymer or cluster expansion. Such an expansion turns the system into a hard-core interacting contour model with small, but not necessarily positive, activities. The method uses some of \textit{M. Zahradnik}'s ideas [ibid. 93, 559-581 (1984)], but applies equally well to systems with complex interactions. We give two applications. First, to low-temperature \(P(\phi)_ 2\) models with complex couplings; and second, to a computation of asymptotics of partition functions in periodic volumes. If the index of a supersymmetric field theory is known, the second application would help determine the number of phases in infinite volume.