Ising model from intertwiners (Q509902)

Spin networks appear in a number of areas, for instance in lattice gauge theories, condensed matter systems, topological quantum field theories and in quantum gravity. They describe the contraction of intertwiners (i.e., invariant tensors of some given order on some relevant group, for instance on \(\mathrm{SU}(2)\) in the case of interest for quantum gravity) according to the underlying network. The connection between generating functions for spin network amplitudes and partition functions of statistical physics models has been explored in several occasions. In this paper, the connection between an intertwiner model admitting a geometrical interpretation similar to spin foam models and the 2D Ising model is explored, by rewriting the generating function as a sum over loop configurations obtained in [\textit{L. Freidel} and the second author, J. Math. Phys. 54, No. 11, 112301, 19 p. (2013; Zbl 1288.83020)], see also [\textit{L. Freidel} and the second author, Classical Quantum Gravity 31, No. 1, Article ID 015019, 31 p. (2014; Zbl 1287.83020)]. It is shown that a certain generating function of such intertwiner contractions for arbitrary networks, when restricted to a square lattice, is exactly related to the high-temperature expansion of the 2D Ising model partition function. This implies that such intertwiner model, for a specific choice of weights (i.e., of dynamics), possesses a second-order phase transition, leading to a continuum limit with propagating degrees of freedom, in contrast to the intertwiner models considered in [the first author and \textit{W. Kaminski}, ``Topological lattice field theories from intetwiner dynamics'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1311.1798}] whose continuum limit lacks propagating degrees of freedom. The authors expect that the techniques presented here can be extended to other statistical models involving irregular lattices and lattices with different topologies and defects.