Exact Potts Model Partition Functions on Strips of the Honeycomb Lattice

Abstract

We present exact calculations of the partition function of the $q$-state Potts model on (i) open, (ii) cyclic, and (iii) M\"obius strips of the honeycomb (brick) lattice of width $L_y=2$ and arbitrarily great length. In the infinite-length limit the thermodynamic properties are discussed. The continuous locus of singularities of the free energy is determined in the $q$ plane for fixed temperature and in the complex temperature plane for fixed $q$ values. We also give exact calculations of the zero-temperature partition function (chromatic polynomial) and $W(q)$, the exponent of the ground-state entropy, for the Potts antiferromagnet for honeycomb strips of type (iv) $L_y=3$, cyclic, (v) $L_y=3$, M\"obius, (vi) $L_y=4$, cylindrical, and (vii) $L_y=4$, open. In the infinite-length limit we calculate $W(q)$ and determine the continuous locus of points where it is nonanalytic. We show that our exact calculation of the entropy for the $L_y=4$ strip with cylindrical boundary conditions provides an extremely accurate approximation, to a few parts in $10^5$ for moderate $q$ values, to the entropy for the full 2D honeycomb lattice (where the latter is determined by Monte Carlo measurements since no exact analytic form is known).