Potts model

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In statistical mechanics, the Potts model, a generalization of the Ising model, is a model of interacting spins on a crystalline lattice. By studying the Potts model, one may gain insight into the behaviour of ferromagnets and certain other phenomena of solid-state physics. The strength of the Potts model is not so much that it models these physical systems well; it is rather that the one-dimensional case is exactly solvable, and that it has a rich mathematical formulation that has been studied extensively. The model is named after Renfrey Potts, who described the model near the end of his 1951 Ph.D. thesis. The model was related to the "planar Potts" or "clock model", which was suggested to him by his advisor, Cyril Domb. The four-state Potts model is sometimes known as the Ashkin–Teller model, after Julius Ashkin and Edward Teller, who considered an equivalent model in 1943 (though to avoid confusion, the four-state Potts model is a special case of a more general model they introduce...

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