Abstract:
We consider the partition function of the two-dimensional free massive
Majorana fermion coupled to the quantized metric of the spherical topology.
By adding an arbitrary conformal “spectator” matter, we gain control over
the total matter central charge. This provides an interesting continuously
parameterized family of critical points and also allows making a connection
with the semiclassical limit. We use the Liouville field theory as the
effective description of the quantized gravity. The spherical scaling
function is calculated approximately, but {(}we believe{\rm)} to a good
numerical precision, in almost the whole domain of the spectator parameter.
An impressive comparison with the predictions of the exactly solvable matrix
model yields a more general model of random-lattice statistics, which is most
probably not solvable by the matrix-model technique but reveals a more
general pattern of critical behavior. We hope that numerical simulations or
series extrapolation will be able to reveal our family of scaling functions.
Keywords:
Liouville field theory, two-dimensional gravity, Ising model, random lattice.