A connection between the ice-type model of Linus Pauling and the three-color problem

Abstract

Abstract The ice-type model proposed by Linus Pauling to explain its entropy at low temperatures is here approached in a didactic way. We first present a theoretically estimated low-temperature entropy and compare it with numerical results. Then, we consider the mapping between this model and the three-colour problem, i.e. colouring a regular graph with coordination equal to 4 (a two-dimensional lattice) with three colours, for which we apply the transfer-matrix method to calculate all allowed configurations for two-dimensional square lattices of N oxygen atoms ranging from 4 to 225. Finally, from a linear regression of the transfer matrix results, we obtain an estimate for the case N → ∞ which is compared with the exact solution by Lieb.