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the sum taken over all vertices i of G . Note that − n ≤ M ≤ n and it only takes every alternate value, i.e. M ∈ {− n, − n + 2 , − n + 4 , . . ., n − 4 , n − 2 , n } . We will often need to refer to it in terms of how many negative spins the state has. If k spins are negative then M = n − 2 k . 

The partition function of the Ising model is defined for any graph G as 

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The coefficients a ( E, M ) then are defined as the number of states with energy E and mag- netisation M . Denote the number of states at energy E by a ( E ) = ∑ M a ( E, M ). Note that the number of states at magnetisation M is just ( n k ) , where k = ( n − M ) / 2 is the number of negative spins. Let also Z$_{k}$ denote the terms of Z with magnetisation M = n − 2 k for a graph on n vertices, so that Z = Z$_{0}$ + Z$_{2}$ + · · · + Z$_{n}$, i.e. Z$_{k}$ are the terms corresponding to k negative spins. 

If we evaluate the partition function in x = e K and y = e H with K the dimension- less coupling, or inverse temperature J/k$_{B}$T , and H = h/k$_{B}$T as the dimensionless exter- nal magnetic field, we obtain the physical partition function denoted Z = Z ( G ; K, H ) = Z( G ; e $^{K}$, e$^{H}$), though we are usually interested only in the case when H = 0 (or y = 1). Analogously, we write Z = Z 0 + · · · + Z $_{n}$. The dimensionless and normalised free energy is defined as F = (log Z ) /n . From the derivatives of the free energy we can now obtain other physical quantities such as the internal energy ∂ F /∂K and the specific heat ∂ $^{2}$F /∂K 2 though we shall not be needing the latter for this investigation. 

We assume the Boltzmann distribution on the states so that (with H = 0) the probability for state τ is K E ( τ ) 

We have then especially that the probability for energy E is 

and the probability for magnetisation M is 

where M = n − 2 k . 

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