Related papers: Coarse graining and first order phase transitions
Experimentally there exist many materials with first-order phase transitions at finite temperature that display quantum criticality. Classically, a strain-energy density coupling is known to drive first-order transitions in compressible…
The theory of deconfined quantum critical points describes phase transitions at temperature T = 0 outside the standard paradigm, predicting continuous transformations between certain ordered states where conventional theory requires…
Homogeneous nucleation of a new phase near a second, continuous, transition, is considered. The continuous transition is in the metastable region associated with the first-order phase transition, one of whose coexisting phases is…
First-order phase transitions exist in many models beyond the Standard Model and can generate detectable stochastic gravitational waves for a strong one. Using the cosmological observables in big bang nucleosynthesis and cosmic microwave…
Scale free dynamics are observed in a variety of physical and biological systems. These include neural activity in which evidence for scale freeness has been reported using a range of imaging modalities. Here, we derive the ways in which…
We advocate a (Wilson) renormalization-group (RG) treatment of finite-temperature first-order phase transitions, in particular those driven by radiative corrections such as occur in the standard model, and other spontaneously-broken gauge…
The phase diagram of a stack of tensionless membranes with nonlinear curvature energy and vertical harmonic interaction is calculated exactly in a large number of dimensions of configuration space. At low temperatures, the system forms a…
Recent very large molecular dynamics simulations of homogeneous nucleation with $(1-8) \cdot 10^9$ Lennard-Jones atoms [Diemand et al. J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 139}, 074309 (2013)] allow us to accurately determine the formation free energy of…
We study the symmetry breaking and restoration behavior of a self-interacting charged scalar field theory under the influence of a constant electric field and finite temperature. Our study is performed in the context of the optimized…
Albeit occurring at zero temperature, quantum critical phenomena are known to have a huge impact on the finite-temperature phase diagram of strongly correlated systems -- an aspect which gives experimental access to their observation. In…
We show that one can obtain naturally the confinement of static charges from the spontaneous symmetry breaking of scale invariance in a gauge theory. At the classical level a confining force is obtained and at the quantum level, using a…
In the conceptual framework of phase ordering after temperature quenches below transition, we consider the underdamped Bales-Gooding-type 'momentum conserving' dynamics of a 2D martensitic structural transition from a square-to-rectangle…
Free energy as a function of temperature and the bubble radius is determined for spherical bubbles created in cosmological first order phase transitions. The phase transition is assumed to be driven by an order parameter (e.g. a Higgs…
It is well known that a minimal distance emerges in quantum field theories owing to the need to regularize the UV divergences. The macroscopical limit at large minimal distance, weak spatial resolution, is investigated for a self…
We report the experimental observation of a square crystalline phase in a vibrated binary mixture of spherical grains. This structure spontaneously forms from a disordered state, consistently with predictions obtained in an equilibrium…
For a much-studied model of random copolymer at a selective interface we prove that the slope of the critical curve in the weak-disorder limit is strictly smaller than 1, which is the value given by the annealed inequality. The proof is…
We consider the possibility that quarks and gluons, due to confinement, have lower scaling dimensions. In such a case there appear naturally new energy scales below which the standard theory is recovered. Arguments are given whereby for…
We model two-dimensional systems of granular aggregates confined between two planes and demonstrate that at a critical grain volume fraction an abrupt rigidity transition occurs. This transition is observed both in static and shear tests.…
We consider interfacial phenomena accompanying bulk quantum phase transitions in presence of surface fields. On general grounds we argue that the surface contribution to the system free energy involves a line of singularities characteristic…
We give evidence of a clear structural signature of the glass transition, in terms of a static correlation length with the same dependence on the system size which is typical of critical phenomena. Our approach is to introduce an external,…