Related papers: The Earliest Phase Transition?
Quantum phase transitions occur at zero temperature when some non-thermal control-parameter like pressure or chemical composition is changed. They are driven by quantum rather than thermal fluctuations. In this review we first give a…
The significance of thermal fluctuations on nucleation in structural first-order phase transitions has been examined. The prototype case of martensitic transitions has been experimentally investigated by means of acoustic emission…
We consider branching process evolving in i.i.d. random environment. It is assumed that the process is intermediately subcritical. We investigate the initial stage of the evolution of the process given its survival for a long time.
Our understanding of the processes that are relevant to the formation and maintenance of habitable planetary systems is advancing at a rapid pace, both from observation and theory. The present review focuses on recent research that bears on…
We study the problem of phase separation in systems with a positive definite order parameter, and in particular, in systems with absorbing states. Owing to the presence of a single minimum in the free energy driving the relaxation kinetics,…
Dynamical equations that are valid in the vicinity of the phase transition into the superconducting state are given. Probable effects of the field of charge carriers' magnetic interactions and the field of temperature fluctuations were…
In the Big Bang scenario, the early Universe is characterized by the {\it particle era}, i.e. a Universe made of particles. This period connects both scales of fundamental physics: infinitesimally small and infinitely large. So, particle…
We examine the behavior of the standard-model electroweak phase transition in the early Universe. We argue that close to the critical temperature it is possible to estimate the {\it effective} infrared corrections to the 1-loop potential…
We introduce a family of two-dimensional lattice models of quasicrystals, using a range of square hard cores together with a soft interaction based on an aperiodic tiling set. Along a low temperature isotherm we find, by Monte Carlo…
This article first gives a concise introduction to quantum phase transitions, emphasizing similarities with and differences to classical thermal transitions. After pointing out the computational challenges posed by quantum phase…
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…
A modification of the classical primitive equations of the atmosphere is considered in order to take into account important phase transition phenomena due to air saturation and condensation. We provide a mathematical formulation of the…
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…
Possibly, the most general action in the background of isotropic and homogeneous space-time has been considered to study the quantum evolution of the early universe, apart from a cosmological constant. The hermiticity of the effective…
Transition out of a topological phase is typically characterized by discontinuous changes in topological invariants along with bulk gap closings. However, as a clean system is geometrically punctured, it is natural to ask the fate of an…
I review some numerical ways to determine the parameters of systems close to a first order phase transition point: energy and specific heat of the coexisting phases and interface tension. Numerical examples are given for the 2-d $q$ states…
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…
There is very strong circumstantial evidence that there was an inflationary epoch very early in the history of the universe. In this lecture I will describe how we might be able to piece together some understanding of the dynamics during…
Several basic problems of the theory of quantum phase transitions are reviewed. The effect of the quantum correlations on the phase transition properties is considered with the help of basic models of statistical physics. The effect of…
Phase transitions and critical behavior of driven systems are reviewed. Models exhibiting phase transitions, spontaneous symmetry breaking, phase separation and coarsening processes in d=1 dimension are discussed.