Characterization of Lee-Yang polynomials

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David Ruelle, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, France
Jadwin Hall 343

I shall give a characterization of the multi-affine polynomials in n variables that occur in the proof of the Lee-Yang Circle Theorem. In particular, it will be seen that the spin interactions for which the Circle Theorem holds at all temperatures must be the ferromagnetic pair interactions originally considered by Lee and Yang (i.e., for non-pair interactions, the theorem fails at some temperature!).