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What is the definition of the thermodynamic limit of a thermodynamic quantity?

MathOverflow Asked on November 9, 2021

Statistical mechanics is all about taking thermodynamic limits and, as far as I know, there are more than one way to define such limits. Consider the following theorem:

Theorem: In the thermodynamic limit, the pressure:
$$psi(beta,h) := lim_{Lambda uparrow mathbb{Z}^{d}}psi_{Lambda}^{#}(beta, h) $$
is well-defined and independent of the sequence $Lambda uparrow mathbb{Z}^{d}$ and of the type of the boundary condition $#$.

Here, I’m using the same notation and conventions from chapter 3 of Velenik and Friedli’s book. The notation $Lambda uparrow mathbb{Z}^{d}$ stands for the convergence in the sense of Van Hove.

Definition [Convergence in the sense of Van Hove] A sequence ${Lambda_{n}}_{nin mathbb{N}}$ of (finite) subsets of $mathbb{Z}^{d}$ is said to converge to $mathbb{Z}^{d}$ in the sense of Van Hove if all three properties listed below are satisfied:

(1) ${Lambda_{n}}_{nin mathbb{N}}$ is an increasing sequence of subsets.

(2) $bigcup_{nin mathbb{N}}Lambda_{n} = mathbb{Z}^{d}$

(3) $lim_{nto infty}frac{|partial^{in}Lambda_{n}|}{|Lambda_{n}|} = 0$, where $|X|$ denotes the cardinality of the set $X$ and $partial^{in}Lambda:={iin Lambda: hspace{0.1cm} exists j inLambda^{c} hspace{0.1cm} mbox{with} hspace{0.1cm} |i-j|=1 }$

My point here is the following. Convergence in the sense of Van Hove is a notion of convergence of sets, not functions of sets. But what does $lim_{Lambdauparrow mathbb{Z}^{d}}psi^{#}_{Lambda}(beta, h)$ mean?

One Answer

It means that if you consider any sequence of sets $(Lambda_n)_{ninmathbb{N}}$ converging to $mathbb{Z}^d$ in the sense of van Hove, then the sequence of numbers $(psi_{Lambda_n}^#(beta,h))_{ninmathbb{N}}$ is convergent. (Moreover, the theorem claims that the limit is independent of the sequence chosen and that the limiting function has nice properties.)

(It may be more natural to consider nets rather than sequences, but we refrained from that generality in the book since this was not necessary in the cases we discuss.)

Answered by Yvan Velenik on November 9, 2021

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