Generalized Langevin equation formulation for anomalous diffusion in the Ising model at the critical temperature

Abstract

We consider the two- (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) Ising models on a square lattice at the critical temperature T c , under Monte Carlo spin flip dynamics. The bulk magnetization and the magnetization of a tagged line in the 2D Ising model, and the bulk magnetization and the magnetization of a tagged plane in the 3D Ising model, exhibit anomalous diffusion. Specifically, their mean-square displacements increase as power laws in time, collectively denoted as ∼ t c , where c is the anomalous exponent. We argue that the anomalous diffusion in all these quantities for the Ising model stems from time-dependent restoring forces, decaying as power laws in time—also with exponent c —in striking similarity to anomalous diffusion in polymeric systems. Prompted by our previous work that has established a memory-kernel based generalized Langevin equation (GLE) formulation for polymeric systems, we show that a closely analogous GLE formulation holds for the Ising model as well. We obtain the memory kernels from spin-spin correlation functions, and the formulation allows us to consistently explain anomalous diffusion as well as anomalous response of the Ising model to an externally applied magnetic field in a consistent manner.