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.