Monte Carlo Investigation of Magnetic Phase Transitions in the Two-Dimensional Ising Model

Many problems in statistical physics resist exact solution once the number of interacting particles becomes large, and the two-dimensional Ising model is a classic case where numerical simulation fills that gap. This paper reports a Monte Carlo study of the two-dimensional Ising model using the Metropolis algorithm, undertaken to examine how magnetization, internal energy, specific heat, and magnetic susceptibility change with temperature. Spin configurations were generated on a square lattice under periodic boundary conditions, with each proposed spin flip accepted or rejected according to the Boltzmann weight of the resulting energy change. The simulation reproduces the expected transition from an ordered ferromagnetic state at low temperature to a disordered paramagnetic state at high temperature, with magnetization falling sharply and both specific heat and susceptibility peaking near a critical temperature of Tc ≈ 2.3–2.4 (in units of J/kB), consistent with the exact value obtained analytically for this system. These results confirm that the Metropolis algorithm, despite its simplicity, remains a dependable tool for locating second-order phase transitions and extracting thermodynamic quantities in lattice spin systems, and the same computational framework can be adapted to more elaborate models used in condensed matter and materials research.