A Lookout on the Sopris National Forest

In selecting a site for a lookout station on the Sopris National Forest, the least of our troubles was to find elevation. Scores of peaks, projecting from 12,000 to 14,000 feet or more, are located all over the Forest in places suitable for taking observations at long range. It was found, however, that on excessively high situations the clouds and storms are so frequent that these become less efficient than lower points

Combinatorics of bicubic maps with hard particles

We present a purely combinatorial solution of the problem of enumerating planar bicubic maps with hard particles. This is done by use of a bijection with a particular class of blossom trees with particles, obtained by an appropriate cutting of the maps. Although these trees have no simple local characterization, we prove that their enumeration may be performed upon introducing a larger class of "admissible" trees with possibly doubly-occupied edges and summing them with appropriate signed weights. The proof relies on an extension of the cutting procedure allowing for the presence on the maps of special non-sectile edges. The admissible trees are characterized by simple local rules, allowing eventually for an exact enumeration of planar bicubic maps with hard particles. We also discuss generalizations for maps with particles subject to more general exclusion rules and show how to re-derive the enumeration of quartic maps with Ising spins in the present framework of admissible trees. We finally comment on a possible interpretation in terms of branching processes.Comment: 41 pages, 19 figures, tex, lanlmac, hyperbasics, epsf. Introduction and discussion/conclusion extended, minor corrections, references adde

A possible combinatorial point for XYZ-spin chain

We formulate and discuss a number of conjectures on the ground state vectors of the XYZ-spin chains of odd length with periodic boundary conditions and a special choice of the Hamiltonian parameters. In particular, arguments for the validity of a sum rule for the components, which describes in a sense the degree of antiferromagneticity of the chain, are given.Comment: AMSLaTeX, 15 page

Three-coloring statistical model with domain wall boundary conditions. I. Functional equations

In 1970 Baxter considered the statistical three-coloring lattice model for the case of toroidal boundary conditions. He used the Bethe ansatz and found the partition function of the model in the thermodynamic limit. We consider the same model but use other boundary conditions for which one can prove that the partition function satisfies some functional equations similar to the functional equations satisfied by the partition function of the six-vertex model for a special value of the crossing parameter.Comment: 16 pages, notations changed for consistency with the next part, appendix adde

Critical and Tricritical Hard Objects on Bicolorable Random Lattices: Exact Solutions

We address the general problem of hard objects on random lattices, and emphasize the crucial role played by the colorability of the lattices to ensure the existence of a crystallization transition. We first solve explicitly the naive (colorless) random-lattice version of the hard-square model and find that the only matter critical point is the non-unitary Lee-Yang edge singularity. We then show how to restore the crystallization transition of the hard-square model by considering the same model on bicolored random lattices. Solving this model exactly, we show moreover that the crystallization transition point lies in the universality class of the Ising model coupled to 2D quantum gravity. We finally extend our analysis to a new two-particle exclusion model, whose regular lattice version involves hard squares of two different sizes. The exact solution of this model on bicolorable random lattices displays a phase diagram with two (continuous and discontinuous) crystallization transition lines meeting at a higher order critical point, in the universality class of the tricritical Ising model coupled to 2D quantum gravity.Comment: 48 pages, 13 figures, tex, harvmac, eps

Voter Model with Time dependent Flip-rates

We introduce time variation in the flip-rates of the Voter Model. This type of generalisation is relevant to models of ageing in language change, allowing the representation of changes in speakers' learning rates over their lifetime and may be applied to any other similar model in which interaction rates at the microscopic level change with time. The mean time taken to reach consensus varies in a nontrivial way with the rate of change of the flip-rates, varying between bounds given by the mean consensus times for static homogeneous (the original Voter Model) and static heterogeneous flip-rates. By considering the mean time between interactions for each agent, we derive excellent estimates of the mean consensus times and exit probabilities for any time scale of flip-rate variation. The scaling of consensus times with population size on complex networks is correctly predicted, and is as would be expected for the ordinary voter model. Heterogeneity in the initial distribution of opinions has a strong effect, considerably reducing the mean time to consensus, while increasing the probability of survival of the opinion which initially occupies the most slowly changing agents. The mean times to reach consensus for different states are very different. An opinion originally held by the fastest changing agents has a smaller chance to succeed, and takes much longer to do so than an evenly distributed opinion.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure

A tree-decomposed transfer matrix for computing exact Potts model partition functions for arbitrary graphs, with applications to planar graph colourings

Combining tree decomposition and transfer matrix techniques provides a very general algorithm for computing exact partition functions of statistical models defined on arbitrary graphs. The algorithm is particularly efficient in the case of planar graphs. We illustrate it by computing the Potts model partition functions and chromatic polynomials (the number of proper vertex colourings using Q colours) for large samples of random planar graphs with up to N=100 vertices. In the latter case, our algorithm yields a sub-exponential average running time of ~ exp(1.516 sqrt(N)), a substantial improvement over the exponential running time ~ exp(0.245 N) provided by the hitherto best known algorithm. We study the statistics of chromatic roots of random planar graphs in some detail, comparing the findings with results for finite pieces of a regular lattice.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Version 2 has been substantially expanded. Version 3 shows that the worst-case running time is sub-exponential in the number of vertice

Critical and Multicritical Semi-Random (1+d)-Dimensional Lattices and Hard Objects in d Dimensions

We investigate models of (1+d)-D Lorentzian semi-random lattices with one random (space-like) direction and d regular (time-like) ones. We prove a general inversion formula expressing the partition function of these models as the inverse of that of hard objects in d dimensions. This allows for an exact solution of a variety of new models including critical and multicritical generalized (1+1)-D Lorentzian surfaces, with fractal dimensions $d_F=k+1$, k=1,2,3,..., as well as a new model of (1+2)-D critical tetrahedral complexes, with fractal dimension $d_F=12/5$. Critical exponents and universal scaling functions follow from this solution. We finally establish a general connection between (1+d)-D Lorentzian lattices and directed-site lattice animals in (1+d) dimensions.Comment: 44 pages, 15 figures, tex, harvmac, epsf, references adde

sl(N) Onsager's Algebra and Integrability

We define an $sl(N)$ analog of Onsager's Algebra through a finite set of relations that generalize the Dolan Grady defining relations for the original Onsager's Algebra. This infinite-dimensional Lie Algebra is shown to be isomorphic to a fixed point subalgebra of $sl(N)$ Loop Algebra with respect to a certain involution. As the consequence of the generalized Dolan Grady relations a Hamiltonian linear in the generators of $sl(N)$ Onsager's Algebra is shown to posses an infinite number of mutually commuting integrals of motion