Continuously varying exponents in magnetic hard squares

The commuting row-to-row transfer matrices of magnetic hard squares on the multicritical T manifold are shown to satisfy a special functional equation called an inversion identity.For strip widths up to N=32, these equations are solved numerically for the transfer matrix eigenvalues. The central charge or conformal anomaly c=1 is obtained from 1/N 2 corrections to the exact bulk free energy and scaling dimensions are obtained from the eigenvalue gaps. The magnetic scaling dimension is x m =1/8 and the sublattice density difference scaling dimension is x e =1/9(2-y), where y=2 lambda / pi and the interaction-dependent crossing parameter lambda varies between 0 and 2 pi /3. Scaling dimensions for further operators fall in the sequence x n =n 2 x e where n=1,2,3,4. The critical exponents also vary continuously along the multicritical line and are given by alpha =(14-9y)/(16-9y), beta m =9(2-y)/16(16-9y), beta e =1/2(16-9y), nu =9(2-y)/2(16-9y) and delta =15. These exponents are simply related to the exponents of the critical eight-vertex and Ashkin-Teller models, which also exhibit Z 2 *Z 2 symmetry, and the authors argue that these models lie in the same universality class.