Anomalous universality in the anisotropic Ashkin-Teller model (Q2577428)

The authors consider the model introduced by \textit{J. Ashkin} and \textit{E. Teller} [Statistics of two-dimensional lattices with four components. Phys. Rev. 64, 178--184 (1943)] as a generalization of the Ising model to a four component system, where in each site of a bidimensional lattice there is a spin which can take four values and only nearest neigbor spin interact. This AT-model can be also considered as a generalization of the four state Potts model to which it reduces for a suitable choice of the parameters. There exists the conjecture that AT-m has in general two critical points, and that universality holds, in the sense that the critical exponents are the same as in the Ising model, except when the couplings of the two Ising layers are equal (isotropic case). The authors study the anisotropic AT-m by writing the partition function and the specific heat as Grassmann integrals corresponding to a \(d=1+1\) interacting fermionic theory, that is possible because of the Ising model can be reformulated as a free fermions model, which is quite well developed. By such techniques a perturbative expansion is developed, convergent up to the critical points, uniformly in the parameters. Explicit expression for the specific heat is obtained from which the indicated conjecture in the weakly interacting case is proved and the critical points are precisely located. It was shown that, despite universality, holds for the specific heat nevertheless nonuniversal critical indexes appear: the distance between the critical points rescale with an anomalous exponent when the couplings of the two Ising layers coincide, i.e. in the isotropic limit. This result also explains how the crossover from universal to nonuniversal behaviour is realized.