Homological properties of dimer configurations for lattices on surfaces (Q1357904)

The purpose of the present paper is to clarify the geometric nature of the dependence of the representations of the partition function for the Ising model in the form of a linear combination of the Pfaffians of the structural matrices on the choice of boundary conditions. It turns out that this dependence has a purely homological sense. Certainly, every lattice can be placed on a surface. For instance, the lattice of the two-dimensional Ising model with free boundary conditions is placed on a plane, for periodic boundary conditions in one of the variables, the corresponding lattice is placed on a cylindrical surface, and for doubly periodic boundary conditions, the lattice is placed on a torus. The expression for the partition function in terms of the Pfaffians of the structural matrices depends on the homological properties of the surface on which the lattice is placed. However, the combinatorial properties of the lattice can be quite arbitrary.