"The Ising model on spherical lattices: dimer versus Monte Carlo approach"
We study, using dimer and Monte Carlo approaches, the critical properties and finite size effects of the Ising model on honeycomb lattices folded on the tetrahedron. We show that the main critical exponents are not affected by the presence of conical singularities. The finite size scaling of the position of the maxima of the specific heat does not match, however, with the scaling of the correlation length, and the thermodynamic limit is attained faster on the spherical surface than in corresponding lattices on the torus.  imtjg64@cc.csic.es e-mail: duncan@vm1.sdi.uam.es

title: Exact finite-size-scaling corrections to the critical two-dimensional Ising model on a torus: II. Triangular and hexagonal lattices
abstract: We compute the finite-size corrections to the free energy, internal energy and specific heat of the critical two-dimensional spin-1/2 Ising model on triangular and hexagonal lattices wrapped on a torus. We find the general form of the finite-size corrections to these quantities, as well as explicit formulae for the first coefficients of each expansion. We analyse the implications of these findings for the renormalization-group description of the model.

title: Dynamic critical behavio(u)r of a cluster algorithm for the Ashkin-Teller model
abstract: We study the dynamic critical behavior of a Swendsen-Wang-type algorithm for the Ashkin-Teller model. We find that the Li-Sokal bound on the autocorrelation time (τint,ɛ ≥ const × CH) holds along the self-dual curve of the symmetric Ashkin-Teller model, but this bound is apparently not sharp. The ratio τint, ɛ /CH appears to tend to infinity either as a logarithm or as a small power (0.05 ≲ p ≲ 0.12).

title: Dynamic critical behavior of a Swendsen-Wang-Type algorithm for the Ashkin-Teller model
abstract: We study the dynamic critical behavior of a Swendsen-Wang-type algorithm for the Ashkin-Teller model. We find that the Li-Sokal bound on the autocorrelation time (τint.δ≥ const xCH) holds along the self-dual curve of the symmetric Ashkin-Teller model, and is almost, but not quite sharp. The ratio τint.δ/CH appears to tend to infinity either as a logarithm or as a small power (0.05≲p≲0.12). In an appendix we discuss the problem of extracting estimates of the exponential autocorrelation time.

title: Computing the couplings of Ising systems from Schwinger-Dyson equations
abstract: We study the problem of determining the couplings of Ising systems in terms of expectation values. We find that all previously known methods can be based on Schwinger-Dyson equations. Indeed, new methods can be derived with relative advantages with respect to all of them. Application for the renormalization group flow of the Ising model on a square lattice is presented.

title: Phase diagram of the chromatic polynomial on a torus
abstract: We study the zero-temperature partition function of the Potts antiferromagnet (i.e., the chromatic polynomial) on a torus using a transfer-matrix approach. We consider square- and triangular-lattice strips with fixed width L, arbitrary length N, and fully periodic boundary conditions. On the mathematical side, we obtain exact expressions for the chromatic polynomial of widths L = 5, 6, 7 for the square and triangular lattices. On the physical side, we obtain the exact phase diagrams for these strips of width L and infinite length, and from these results we extract useful information about the infinite-volume phase diagram of this model: in particular, the number and position of the different phases.

title: Adiabatic regularization and particle creation for spin one-half fields
abstract: The extension of the adiabatic regularization method to spin-$1/2$ fields requires a self-consistent adiabatic expansion of the field modes. We provide here the details of such expansion, which differs from the WKB ansatz that works well for scalars, to firmly establish the generalization of the adiabatic renormalization scheme to spin-$1/2$ fields. We focus on the computation of particle production in de Sitter spacetime and obtain an analytic expression of the renormalized stress-energy tensor for Dirac fermions.