Average Length of Cycles in Rectangular Lattice

Abstract

We study the number of cycles and their average length in $L\times N$ lattice by using classical method of transfer matrix. In this work, we derive a bivariate generating function $G_3(y, z)$ in which a coefficient of $y^i z^j$ is the number of cycles of length $i$ in $3\times j$ lattice. By using the bivariate generating function, we show that the average length of cycles in $3\times N$ lattice is $\alpha N + \beta + o(1)$ where $\alpha$ and $\beta$ are some algebraic numbers approximately equal to 3.166 and 0.961, respectively. We argue generalizations of this method for $L\ge 4$, and obtain a generating function of the number of cycles in $L\times N$ lattice for $L$ up to 7.