Related papers: More is the Same; Phase Transitions and Mean Field…

This paper looks at the theory underlying the science of materials from the perspectives of physics, the history of science, and the philosophy of science. We are particularly concerned with the development of understanding of the…

Critical transitions, or large changes in the state of a system after a small change in the system's external conditions or parameters, commonly occur in a wide variety of disciplines, from the biological and social sciences to physics.…

The mean field theory is revisited in the classical and quantum mechanical limits. Taking into account the boundary conditions at the phase transition and the third law of the thermodynamics the physical properties of the ordered and…

One-dimensional model of a system where first-order phase transition occurs is examined in the present paper. It is shown that basic properties of the phenomenon, such as a well defined temperature of transition, are caused both by…

The most important recent results in the theory of phase transitions and quantum effects in quantum anharmonic crystals are presented and discussed. In particular, necessary and sufficient conditions for a phase transition to occur at some…

While analyzing second order thermodynamical phase transitions, Lev Landau (the famous Russian physicist) introduced a very vital concept, the concept of an "order parameter". This not only amalgamated the previous fragmentary theoretical…

First-order phase transitions are commonly associated with a discontinuous behavior of some of the thermodynamic variables and the presence of a latent heat. In the present study it is shown that this is not necessarily the case. Using…

We investigate the dynamics of a first order transition when the order parameter field undergoes resonant oscillations, driven by a periodically varying parameter of the free energy. This parameter could be a background oscillating field as…

We consider an off-lattice liquid crystal pair potential in strictly two dimensions. The potential is purely repulsive and short-ranged. Nevertheless, by means of a single parameter in the potential, the system is shown to undergo a…

The microscopic model in which nodes interacting with each other are statistical systems is introduced. The nodes conditions are connected with a string of distinct microscopic configurations and depend on external parameters (pressure and…

The dynamics of first order phase transitions are studied in the context of (3+1)-dimensional scalar field theories. Particular attention is paid to the question of quantifying the strength of the transition, and how `weak' and `strong'…

Nuclear matter at finite temperature and barion density exhibits several phase transitions that could happen at the early stages of the Universe evolution and could be realized in heavy-ion or hadron-hadron collisions. Microscopic…

At low temperature a thermodynamic system undergoes a phase transition when a physical parameter passes through a singularity point of the free energy, corresponding to formation of a new order. At high temperature the thermal fluctuations…

In recent years, quantum phase transitions have attracted the interest of both theorists and experimentalists in condensed matter physics. These transitions, which are accessed at zero temperature by variation of a non-thermal control…

Almost all normal-incommensurate phase transitions observed experimentally are continuous. We show that there is not any theoretical reason for this general behaviour in perfect crystals. A normal-incommensurate phase transition that is not…

A new formulation of statistical mechanics is put forward according to which a random variable characterizing a macroscopic body is postulated to be infinitely divisible. It leads to a parametric representation of partition function of an…

In previous work on quantum phase transition in granular superconductors, where mean-field theory was used, an assumption was made that the order parameter as a function of the mean field is a convex up function. Though this is not always…

A comprehensive theory of the quantum phase transition in clean, itinerant Heisenberg ferromagnets is presented. It is shown that the standard mean-field description of the transition is invalid in spatial dimensions $d\leq 3$ due to the…

The dynamics of weak vs. strong first order phase transitions is investigated numerically for 2+1 dimensional scalar field models. It is argued that the change from a weak to a strong transition is itself a (second order) phase transition,…

Polymorphism is ubiquitous in crystalline solids. Amorphous solids, such as glassy water and silicon, may undergo amorphous-to-amorphous transitions (AATs). The nature of AATs remains ambiguous, due to diverse system-dependent behaviors and…