Ordinary, extraordinary, and normal surface transitions: extraordinary-normal equivalence and simple explanation of $|T-T_c|^{2-α}$ singularities

Abstract

With simple, exact arguments we show that the surface magnetization $m_1$ at the extraordinary and normal transitions and the surface energy density $ε_1$ at the ordinary, extraordinary, and normal transitions of semi-infinite $d$-dimensional Ising systems have leading thermal singularities $B_\pm |t|^{2-α}$, with the same critical exponent and amplitude ratio as the bulk free energy $f_b(t,0)$. The derivation is carried out in three steps: (i) By tracing out the surface spins, the semi-infinite Ising model with supercritical surface enhancement $g$ and vanishing surface magnetic field $h_1$ is mapped exactly onto a semi-infinite Ising model with subcritical surface enhancement, a nonzero surface field, and irrelevant additional surface interactions. This establishes the equivalence of the extraordinary ($h_1=0, g>0$) and normal ($h_1\neq 0, g<0$) transitions. (ii) The magnetization $m_1$ at the interface of an infinite system with uniform temperature $t$ and a nonzero magnetic field $h$ in the half-space $z>0$ only is shown to be proportional to $f_b(t,0)-f_b(t,h)$. (iii) The energy density $ε_1$ at the interface of an infinite system with temperatures $t_+$ and $t$ in the half-spaces $z>0$ and $z<0$ and no magnetic field is shown to be proportional to $f_b(t,0)-f_b(t_+,0)$.