A Graphical Exposition of the Ising Problem

Abstract

Ising [1] proposed the problem which now bears his name and solved it for the one-dimensional case only, leaving the higher dimensional cases as unsolved problems. The first solution to the two dimensional Ising problem was obtained by Onsager [6]. Onsager's method was subsequently explained more clearly by Kaufman [3]. More recently, Kac and Ward [2] discovered a simpler procedure involving determinants which is not logically complete.