Kac-Ward operators, Kasteleyn operators, and \(s\)-holomorphicity on arbitrary surface graphs (Q2352772)

The main motivation of this work is an extension of results of Chelkak and Smirnov on the conformal invariance and universality in the two-dimensional Ising model on isoradial graphs with critical weights [\textit{D. Chelkak} and \textit{S. Smirnov}, Invent. Math. 189, No. 3, 515--580 (2012; Zbl 1257.82020)] to more general graphs. The paper can be seen as a first step towards this goal. It generalizes the notion of \(s\)-holomorphicity introduced by Chelkak and Smirnov [loc. cit.] in the context of planar isoradial graphs to arbitrary weighted surface graphs, and gives three criteria for holomorphicity in terms of the Kac-Ward, the Kasteleyn, and the discrete Dirac operators. Explicit relations between the three operators are obtained, in particular the relation between the Kac-Ward and Kasteleyn operators implies an extension of the Kramers-Wannier duality for Kac-Ward determinants to weighted surface graphs. Several properties of \(s\)-holomorphic functions on isoradial graphs from [loc. cit.] are extended to the setting of the paper, but there are also substantial differences, which prevent the use of further ideas from [loc. cit.] in the current setting.