Journal of Statistical Physics, Vol. 46, Nos. 3/4, 1987. p. 435-453.
A study is made of a two-dimensional lsing model with staggered three-spin interactions in one direction and two-spin interactions in the other. The phase diagram of the model and its critical behavior are explored by conventional finite-size scaling and by exploiting relations between mass gap amplitudes and critical exponents predicted by conformal invariance. The model is found to exhibit a line of continuously varying critical exponents, which bifurcates into two Ising critical lines. This similarity of the model with the Ashkin-Teller model leads to a conjecture for the exact critical indices along the nonuniversal critical curve. Earlier contradictions about the universality class of the uniform (isotropic) case of the model are clarified.