Fate of 2D Kinetic Ising Ferromagnets and Critical Percolation Crossing Probabilities

Abstract

We present evidence for a deep connection between the zero-temperature coarsening of the two-dimensional kinetic Ising model (KIM) and critical continuum percolation. In addition to reaching the ground state, the KIM can also fall into a variety of topologically distinct metastable stripe states. The probability to reach a stripe state that winds a times horizontally and b times vertically on a square lattice with periodic boundary conditions equals the corresponding exactly-solved critical percolation crossing probability P_{a,b} for a spanning path with winding numbers a and b.