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A complexity classification of spin systems with an external field
Leslie Ann Goldberg1, Mark Jerrum2
1Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QD, United Kingdom;
Abstract:
We study the computational complexity of approximating the partition function of a q-state spin system with an external field. There are just three possible levels of computational difficulty, depending on the interaction strengths between adjacent spins: (i) efficiently exactly computable, (ii) equivalent to the ferromagnetic Ising model, and (iii) equivalent to the antiferromagnetic Ising model. Thus, every nontrivial q-state spin system, irrespective of the number q of spins, is computationally equivalent to one of two fundamental two-state spin systems.
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