Sensitivity of the thermodynamics of two-dimensional systems towards the topological classes of their surfaces

Abstract

Using Monte Carlo simulations we study the two-dimensional Ising model on triangular, square, and hexagonal lattices with various topologies. We focus on the behavior of the magnetic susceptibility and of the specific heat near the critical point of the planar bulk system. We find that scaling functions of these quantities on the spherical surface (Euler characteristic K = 2) differ from the scaling functions on the projective plane (K = 1) which, in turn, differ from the scaling functions on the torus and on the Klein bottle (both K = 0). This provides strong evidence that phase transitions of the Ising model on two-dimensional surfaces depend on their topologies.