An operator theoretic approach to the brickwork Ising model with second-neighbor interactions (Q2435367)

The author revisits the article of \textit{K. Tanaka}, \textit{T. Morita} and \textit{K. Hiroike} [``Spin pair correlation function of the Ising model on the brickwork lattice with second-neighbor interactions'', Physica A 171, 350--373 (1991)], devoted to the brickwork Ising model with second-neighbor interactions and stating the conditions under which the model possesses the ferromagnetic phase transition. As the latter was based on rather complicated manipulations with block Toeplitz determinants, the author proposes to give another proof of this result making use of the classical Szego-Widom's limit theorem and presents a new operator theoretic approach to this phase transition problem. The author shows how part of the results of Tanaka and al. [loc. cit.], namely the low-order asymptotics of block Toeplitz determinants and thus a rigorous proof of the existence of solely the ferro- and paramagnetic phases, can be relatively quickly obtained by having recourse to some standard operator theory combined with some results on infinite Toeplitz matrices and their truncations. Similar results in this direction were also obtained very recently by \textit{P. Deift}, \textit{A. Its} and \textit{I. Krasovsky} [``Toeplitz matrices and Toeplitz determinants under the impetus of the Ising model. Some history and some recent results'', \url{arXiv:1207.4990}], devoted to the interaction between Toeplitz determinants and the Ising model. Analytically, the problem consists in determining the spontaneous magnetization, i.e., in computing the limit on the Toeplitz determinant \(\det T(b),\) where \[ T(b):=\left( \begin{matrix} b_{0} & b_{-1} & b_{-2} & \dots & b_{-n} & \dots \\ b_{1} & b_{0} & b_{-1} & b_{-2} & b_{-3} & \dots \\ b_{2} & b_{1} & b_{0} & b_{-1} & b_{-2} & \dots \\ b_{3} & b_{2} & b_{1} & b_{0} & b_{-1} & \dots \\ b_{4} & b_{3} & b_{2} & b_{1} & b_{0} & \dots \\ \dots & \dots & \dots & \dots & \dots & \dots \end{matrix} \right) , \] is the operator in \(l^{2}(\mathbb{C}^{m})\) and \(b:=b(z)\) is a smooth function (of Hölder type, for instance) under the condition \(\det b(z)\neq 0\) for \(|z|=1,\) allowing to make use of the Wiener-Hopf factorization theorem. Tanaka et al. [loc. cit.] proved that \(M(T):=(\det T(b))^{1/4}>0\) for \(T<T_{c}\) (ferromagnetic phase) and \(M(T)=0\) for \(T>T_{c},\) (paramagnetic phase), and they gave an explicit expression for \(M(T)\) in the case \(T<T_{c}\). The main results of the article are new alternative (``operator theoretic'') proofs to these results and, moreover, a rigorous proof that \(M(T)=0\) for \(T=T_{c}\).