The Metropolis Algorithm and the Two-dimensional Ising Model, practical issues

The crucial step is the calculation of the energy difference and the change in magnetization. This part needs to be coded in an as efficient as possible way since the change in energy is computed many times. In the calculation of the energy difference from one spin configuration to the other, we will limit the change to the flipping of one spin only. For the Ising model in two dimensions it means that there will only be a limited set of values for \( \Delta E \). Actually, there are only five possible values.