Title
The Complexity of Ferromagnetic Ising with Local Fields
Abstract
We consider the complexity of approximating the partition function of the ferromagnetic Ising model with varying interaction energies and local external magnetic fields. Jerrum and Sinclair provided a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme for the case in which the system is consistent in the sense that the local external fields all favour the same spin. We characterize the complexity of the general problem by showing that it is equivalent in complexity to the problem of approximately counting independent sets in bipartite graphs, thus it is complete in a logically defined subclass of #P previously studied by Dyer, Goldberg, Greenhill and Jerrum. By contrast, we show that the corresponding computational task for the $q$-state Potts model with local external magnetic fields and $q2$ is complete for all of #P with respect to approximation-preserving reductions.
Year
DOI
Venue
2007
10.1017/S096354830600767X
Combinatorics, Probability & Computing
Keywords
Field
DocType
partition function,magnetic field,local field,ising model,bipartite graph,potts model,independent set
Discrete mathematics,Combinatorics,Magnetic field,Spin-½,Polynomial,Partition function (statistical mechanics),Bipartite graph,Ising model,Square-lattice Ising model,Mathematics,Potts model
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
16
1
0963-5483
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
31
1.13
9
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
leslie ann goldberg11411125.20
mark jerrum22755564.62