PurposeThe present paper is aimed at 1) performing a systematic literature review (SLR) on applications in the perspective of sustainable agri-food supply chain (SC) of blockchain technology (BCT); 2) analyzing the selected literature, focusing on the advantages of the sustainable uses of the blockchain of the aforementioned SC and 3) presenting an outlook and research directions capable of addressing unresolved problems.Design/methodology/approachThe SLR was conducted using detailed criteria to identify academic articles. Moreover, specific keywords and databases were used. The time frame considered included the years 2010–2020.FindingsThe review analysis indicates that the use of BCT or BCT supported by ICT/IoT contributes to sustainability of agri-food production. However, this technology can lead to several challenges such as scalability, privacy leakage, high cost and connectivity problems.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper demonstrates that BCT can widely use agri-food supply chain due to its intrinsic characteristics. However, it is not excluded that the criteria chosen may not have identified important articles regarding BCT, the agri-food sector and sustainability.Originality/valueAlthough the body of academic literature published on this topic is expansive, the effect of BCT on the agri-food SC's sustainability aspects has not yet been adequately analyzed. Thus, the article is aimed at investigating how BCT is used in the SC. In particular, the article is intended to update information about BCT and its impact on sustainability.

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We formulate the spectral-density method in classical statistical mechanics in strict analogy with the known quantum version, and we apply it to the classical Heisenberg ferromagnetic model in an external field. A new formula for the magnetization in the classical formulation of spin-vector Green functions is derived for arbitrary spatial dimensionality. Furthermore, the static properties of the oneand three-dimensional cases are considered in detail. We obtain accurate results over a wide range of temperatures with the external field for the one-dimensional model and without field for the three-dimensional model. In the first case very good agreement with the exact numerical transfer-matrix data is also found in the region of higher temperature where the interacting-boson approach fails. In particular the zero-field susceptibility results are found to be consistent with the exact results obtained by Fisher.