Thermodynamical properties of the transverse Ising model

A new effective field theory is proposed and used to derive the thermodynamical properties of the transverse Ising model. The formalism is based on an exact formal spin identity for the two-state transverse Ising model and utilizes an exponential operator technique. The method, which can explicitly and systematically include correlation effects, is illustrated in several lattice structures by employing its simplest approximation version (in which spin-spin correlations are neglected). The lines of critical points in the Ω-T plane as well as the thermal behaviour of both transverse and longitudinal magnetizations are analysed for square and simple cubic lattices. It is shown that the present formalism, in spite of its simplicity, yields results which represent a remarkable improvement on the standard mean field treatment (MFA).