Critical wetting transitions in two-dimensional systems subject to long-ranged boundary fields

Using the quasiexact density-matrix renormalization-group method and ground-state analysis we study interface delocalization transitions in wide two-dimensional Ising strips subject to long-ranged boundary fields with opposite signs at the two surfaces. Based on this approach, our explicit calculations demonstrate that critical wetting transitions do exist for semi-infinite two-dimensional systems even if the corresponding effective interface potentials decay asymptotically for large l as slow as l(-delta) with delta<2, where l is the distance of the mean interface position from the one-dimensional surface. This supersedes opposite claims by Kroll and Lipowsky [Phys. Rev. B 28, 5273 (1983)] and by Privman and Svrakić [Phys. Rev. B 37, 5974 (1988)] obtained within effective interface models. The corresponding wetting phase diagram is determined, including the cases delta=2 and delta=49 with the latter mimicking short-ranged surface fields. Our analysis highlights the limits of reliability of effective interface models.