Duality and conformal twisted boundaries in the Ising model

There has been recent interest in conformal twisted boundary conditions and their realisations in solvable lattice models. For the Ising and Potts quantum chains, these amount to boundary terms that are related to duality, which is a proper symmetry of the model at criticality. Thus, at criticality, the duality-twisted Ising model is translationally invariant, similar to the more familiar cases of periodic and antiperiodic boundary conditions. The complete finite-size spectrum of the Ising quantum chain with this peculiar boundary condition is obtained

Dilute Algebras and Solvable Lattice Models

The definition of a dilute braid-monoid algebra is briefly reviewed. The construction of solvable vertex and interaction-round-a-face models built on representations of the dilute Temperley-Lieb and Birman-Wenzl-Murakami algebras is discussed.Comment: 8 pages, uuencoded gz-compressed PostScript, to appear in the proceedings of the satellite meeting of STATPHYS 19, `Statistical Models, Yang-Baxter Equation and Related Topics', August 8-10, 1995, Tianjin, Chin

The modified XXZ Heisenberg chain, conformal invariance, surface exponents of c<1 systems, and hidden symmetries of the finite chains

The spin-1/2 XXZ Heisenberg chain with two types of boundary terms is considered. For the first type, the Hamiltonian is hermitian but not for the second type which includes the U_{q}[SU(2)] symmetric case. It is shown that for a certain `tuning' between the anisotropy angle and the boundary terms the spectra present unexpected degeneracies. These degeneracies are related to the structure of the irreducible representations of the Virasoro algebras for c<1.Comment: 9 pages; an old preprint from the pre-arXiv (but not pre-LaTeX) era, published version not (yet?) electronically accessibl

Can Kinematic Diffraction Distinguish Order from Disorder?

Diffraction methods are at the heart of structure determination of solids. While Bragg-like scattering (pure point diffraction) is a characteristic feature of crystals and quasicrystals, it is not straightforward to interpret continuous diffraction intensities, which are generally linked to the presence of disorder. However, based on simple model systems, we demonstrate that it may be impossible to draw conclusions on the degree of order in the system from its diffraction image. In particular, we construct a family of one-dimensional binary systems which cover the entire entropy range but still share the same purely diffuse diffraction spectrum.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; two typos in the recursion relations for the autocorrelation coefficients were correcte

Combinatorial problems of (quasi-)crystallography

Several combinatorial problems of (quasi-)crystallography are reviewed with special emphasis on a unified approach, valid for both crystals and quasicrystals. In particular, we consider planar sublattices, similarity sublattices, coincidence sublattices, their module counterparts, and central and averaged shelling. The corresponding counting functions are encapsulated in Dirichlet series generating functions, with explicit results for the triangular lattice and the twelvefold symmetric shield tiling. Other combinatorial properties are briefly summarised.Comment: 12 pages, 2 PostScript figures, LaTeX using vch-book.cl

A Note on Shelling

The radial distribution function is a characteristic geometric quantity of a point set in Euclidean space that reflects itself in the corresponding diffraction spectrum and related objects of physical interest. The underlying combinatorial and algebraic structure is well understood for crystals, but less so for non-periodic arrangements such as mathematical quasicrystals or model sets. In this note, we summarise several aspects of central versus averaged shelling, illustrate the difference with explicit examples, and discuss the obstacles that emerge with aperiodic order.Comment: substantially revised and extended, 15 pages, AMS LaTeX, several figures included; see also math.MG/990715

Surprises in aperiodic diffraction

Mathematical diffraction theory is concerned with the diffraction image of a given structure and the corresponding inverse problem of structure determination. In recent years, the understanding of systems with continuous and mixed spectra has improved considerably. Moreover, the phenomenon of homometry shows various unexpected new facets. Here, we report on some of the recent results in an exemplary and informal fashion.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure; paper presented at Aperiodic 2009 (Liverpool