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Article

Absence of Ordering in Certain Classical Systems

N. David MerminLaboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
1967en
ABI

Abstract

A classical inequality giving lower bounds for fluctuations about ordered states is derived. The inequality, analogous to a quantum result due to Bogoliubov, is established by a purely classical argument which makes explicit the nature of the surface boundary conditions required, a point which is rather obscure in the quantum derivations. As in the quantum case the inequality is useful in excluding certain kinds of phase transitions in one- and two-dimensional systems. This is illustrated for several kinds of classical spin systems.

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