Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Conformal Field Theory And Its Application To The Ising Model, Joshua Edward Meyer

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The two-dimensional Ising model was originally solved by Onsager using statistical physics techniques. More recently, it has been found that the derivation of critical exponents and correlation functions can be greatly simplified by using the methods of Conformal Field Theory (CFT). We review these methods and apply them to the two-dimensional Ising model. The connection between the continuum limit Ising model and the field theory of free fermions is explained, resulting in a CFT on the plane with two non-trivial fields. Through the use of bosonization on the plane, the free-field correlation functions of the model are computed.