NUMERICAL TRANSFER-MATRIX STUDY OF SURFACE-TENSION ANISOTROPY IN ISING-MODELS ON SQUARE AND CUBIC LATTICES

We compute by numerical transfer-matrix methods the surface free energ y tau(T), the surface stiffness coefficient kappa(T), and the step fre e energy s(T) for Ising ferromagnets with (infinity x L) square-lattic e and (infinity x L x M) cubic-lattice geometries, into which an inter face is introduced by imposing antiperiodic or plus/minus boundary con ditions in one transverse direction. These quantities occur in expansi ons of the angle-dependent surface tension for either rough or smooth interfaces. The finite-size scaling behavior of the interfacial correl ation length provides the means of investigating tau(T), kappa(T), and s(T). The resulting transfer-matrix estimates are fully consistent wi th previous series and Monte Carlo studies, although current computati onal technology does not permit transfer-matrix studies of sufficientl y large systems to show quantitative improvement over the previous est imates.