Universality in the 2d Quasi-periodic Ising Model and Harris–Luck Irrelevance

We prove that in the 2D Ising model with a weak bidimensional quasi-periodic disorder in the interaction, the critical behavior is the same as in the non-disordered case; that is, the critical exponents for the specific heat and energy-energy correlations are identical, and no logarithmic corrections are present. The disorder produces a quasi-periodic modulation of the amplitude of the correlations and a renormalization of the velocities, that is, the coefficients of the rescaling of positions, and of the critical temperature. The result establishes the validity of the prediction based on the Harris–Luck criterion, and it provides the first rigorous proof of universality in the Ising model in the presence of quasi-periodic disorder in both directions and for any angle. Small divisors are controlled assuming a Diophantine condition on the frequencies, and the convergence of the series is proved by Renormalization Group analysis.