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Onsager, ice, biomembranes, dimer models and the F-model

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Abstract

Personal recollections give a sampling of some of Onsager's later interests in ice and biomembranes. The author's involvement in these topics led to modeling a particular biomembrane phase transition using dimer models. Recent work is described for a particularly rich dimer model which is isomorphic to the F-model in three kinds of fields (direct, staggered, and quarter). New results for the full three-dimensional phase diagram show (1) how the anomalous OK multicritical point is destroyed by a direct field, and (2) how a new line of critical points must be added to the phase diagram in direct and staggered fields obtained previously by Baxter, due to diverging susceptibilities in the quarter field.

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Nagle, J.F. Onsager, ice, biomembranes, dimer models and the F-model. J Stat Phys 78, 549–561 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02183364

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